Encounter in Venice
by FS
Summary: After bringing down the Organization and taking the cure, Shinichi's life is at a crisis point. During a case, he encounters Ai, presumed dead, and meets a crew of eccentric people in Venice. Unravelling the mystery around them might help him to close the door to his own past. But solving a case is not easy when one is consumed with guilt and an unacknowledged love...
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:**

This fanfic is based on Gosho Aoyama's "Meitantei Konan" and "Magic Kaito" and Naoko Takeuchi's "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" (sans the magic)._  
_

The crime in this story is inspired by the novel by Donna Leon (Death at La Fenice). However, this is not a book parody, and you won't find any spoilers for the novel in this fic (or vice versa).

The lyrics of "Charade" belong to Johnny Mercer, the script of "Charade" belongs to Stanley Donen, and the lyrics of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "The Phantom of the Opera" belong to Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe.

This fanfic and the original characters (Luigi Gentile, Nadia Gorowitz, Mirelle Black etc.) belong to me.

**Thanks a lot to Astarael00, the fastest beta-reader on Earth. :)**

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER **_**in **_**VENICE **x.

(new version)

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**1. Prologue**

Everything must have happened before, he thinks, for everything seems curiously familiar to him. The cloudless sky, the red van which overtakes him, the children playing on the streets, the scent of Ran's perfume on the scarf around his neck, detective Takagi who is waving at him... Everything seems vaguely familiar, even his amazement about the small figure standing in front of the gate, waiting for him.

"It must be really urgent," he says, jumping from his skateboard. "I can't remember that you've ever been waiting for me _in front of _the door."

"I see you're in a splendid mood," she remarks, smiling. But he can see in her eyes that something is not right.

"But you aren't," he says, automatically scanning her up and down to search for clues. "So what happened?"

Obviously, she has not slept well, for she looks tired and overwrought and her eyes are surrounded by dark rings. The fresh scent about her tells him she has just had a shower. She is wearing the midnight-blue pullover he believes to be her favourite, the new pair of blue jeans Ayumi-chan's mother gave her on her tenth birthday, and the new red coat she bought last year because her favourite red-riding-hood coat had become too small for her.

It cannot be a coincidence that she has taken a shower at such a time, has put on her favourite clothes and even polished her shoes, he thinks. Why has she been particularly fastidious in the choice of clothes tonight? If he didn't know her better, he would say she was going on a date. However, there is no reason why she would call him and tell him to come to her _"immediately" _if she really intended to go on a date with somebody, not to mention the fact that he couldn't think of anybody who Haibara Ai would go out with, anyway. She was, at least physically, only ten years old. And, as she was mentally twenty, he couldn't imagine that she would go out with any of the ten-year-old kids who were in love with her.

The Professor — they have grown accustomed to referring to good old Agasa-hakase as "the Professor" — has gone to a scientific meeting and will not come back before tomorrow night, she informs him. That means they will have enough time to make some preparations for their scheme. She has also called Hattori, who is already on the way to Tokyo...

"Mr. Black has called you," he says, stating the obvious. Entering the house, he wonders why everything seems wrong to him; for example, the couch in the corner of the room is supposed to be beige, not blue.

She has just shut the door behind him and is coming towards him. And, with an impersonal sense of foreboding — impersonal in the sense that it seems to belong to another person and not to him — he realizes that he knows exactly what she is going to say.

"Kudo," she begins. "What are you going to do after taking the cure?"

It is only a dream, Shinichi realizes. He is dreaming about something that happened in the past. But he cannot remember what happened, and why there is a lump in his throat which prevents him from speaking. He is suddenly aware of the cold air which is coming through the window and the drizzle of rain outside the hotel while other past — or future — happenings (considering that the setting of his dream is Beika, three years ago) are flitting past him. There are the moist streets of Paris where they met Jean, the French agent of the FBI; the brilliant sky in Osaka where they made the final preparations for their scheme and, at last, the small isle where they found the headquarters of the Black Organization...

"I promise I'll come back in time," he hears himself saying. And while the sun goes down, while the scenery around them keeps changing and becomes a blur as he slowly regains consciousness, she is still standing there in front of him, fixing him with her inquiring eyes, until he finally opens his eyes and her image, too, disappears with Hattori Heiji's into the impenetrable darkness of the night...

x.


	2. Part One: The tendency

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to Astarael00, the fastest beta-reader on Earth. :)**

x.

FS

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.  
(new version)

x.

_When we played our charade  
We were like children posing  
Playing at games  
Acting out names  
Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**2. The tendency...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday evening, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

The tendency towards exaggeration seems to be one of the less endearing (but nevertheless typical) characteristics of mankind, Shinichi reflects, absently smiling at the words **"Gran Teatro La Fenice"** — golden letters on a pale-blue background — on the title page of the brochure in Ran's hands. The name refers to the phoenix, a magic bird which is born from fire and rises from the ashes. They have made an effort to show the proud, reddish-golden bird spreading its wings to soar (in Ran's opinion) or just to exhibit its magnificence (in Shinichi's opinion).

"It looks like a golden swan," Ran exclaims.

It looks like an orange goose with a very long neck, Shinichi thinks.

He has read on the website of the Teatro that they called the restoration project of the embellishments in the Apollinee Rooms "an act of love towards the fragments which survived." An act of love! Why it is so easy to love places, buildings and other lifeless things more than people? Why do we love lifeless things at all?

"On 29th January 1996 a malicious fire destroyed the theatre," Ran reads aloud. "But then the name of the theatre is somewhat... prophetic, don't you think? It was burned down and then rebuilt again and reopened again in," she flips impatiently through the small brochure. "I can't find it."

"It reopened in November 2004 with _La Traviata_, the Verdi opera that premiered in La Fenice."

"How come you know about it?"

"I read the brochure, too," Shinichi smirks.

"Yes, yes, everybody knows that you're the Sherlock Holmes of the twenty-first century," she glares playfully at him. "Back to our topic. I think that the name of the theatre is quite prophetic, don't you think?"

"Kind of, but not really, considering the first three pages of the brochure you've just skipped. 'La Fenice' got its name because of another fire. The most important theatre in Venice was burned to the ground at the end of the eighteenth century. And the Venetians, who couldn't decide whether to rebuild it or not, built another house and, alluding to the fire, called it 'La Fenice.' It burned down, was reopened again after a year and then burned down again in 1996. If the name is really prophetic as you said, it will certainly burn down again some day."

"But I still think that it's nice that they rebuilt it. You see, they loved it enough to rebuild it instead of replacing it with another theatre... Don't you think the same?"

"That it's nice that they rebuilt it?" Shinichi asks, avoiding her questioning gaze. "Of course I do. But they might just as well have replaced it with a new theatre, don't you think? It would have been the same."

"No, of course it wouldn't have been the same," she says, flushing with anger. "A new theatre can never be the same as the old one. It's not as simple as that. There are... memories. You can't erase the memories so easily..."

No, you cannot erase them from your mind, he agrees. At least he can't erase them. However, he can keep them in a file he is never going to open again...

x.

Later, when they have taken their seats in the concert hall, it dawns on Shinichi that Ran and he don't speak the same language anymore. Words which sound positive in her ears sound negative in his and vice versa. When she spoke of "memories", she meant the memories of their childhood which had made them fall in love with each other and not the memories he had been thinking of.

The lights in the hall begin to dim; and Shinichi grasps the chance to cast another glance at her face without her noticing. Once again, just like the day before yesterday when they met at Narita International Airport to fly to Venice together, he is struck by the fact that, compared to the teenage Ran-nee-chan who had taken care of Conan-kun some years ago, her appearance has not changed much. Her hair she cut three years ago has grown long again, touching her shoulders. Her face has become slightly sharper and more mature than it was three years ago. But apart from that, the features and expression of her face have not changed at all. Ran has stayed the same, in contrast to him.

When the curtains open, the thundering applause which follows Hino Rei's and Tenoh Haruka's appearance on stage interrupts Shinichi's train of thought. Although he has seen Tenoh's face on posters, CD and DVD covers and watched one of his concerts on TV before, Shinichi didn't expect that Tenoh would make such an impression on him the first time he sees him in the flesh. A malicious critic wrote in the newspaper Shinichi read on the plane that Tenoh's excellent piano skills are certainly not the reason for his growing fame: "being one of the best-looking pianists and composers of our time, Tenoh Haruka would be popular even if he couldn't play the piano at all." Another critic wrote that, as a pianist, Tenoh might have been impressive a few years ago but has lost his virtuosity and his unique expressiveness recently.

However, it doesn't take Tenoh more than a few chords to convince Shinichi that — virtuosity or no virtuosity — he is definitely a promising talent and will become one of the best pianists the world has ever heard. Even though Tenoh's touch seems to Shinichi less exquisite than his fans claim, there is still something unusual and magnetic about his playing, something that even Shinichi — although he didn't voluntarily attend this opera — is unable to resist.

In the beginning, flying to Venice and spending a few days alone with Ran didn't seem to be a particularly good idea to him. First, he knew exactly that it was dangerous to spend so much time with Ran – to holiday with her in Venice and to stay with her in a huge suite as if they were a married couple. Second, he didn't care much about the concert, about Tenoh Haruka or Hino Rei, as music in general and this kind of music in particular are not of any interest to him. Moreover, he ought to be in Tokyo solving cases instead of wasting his time watching Tenoh's _An Opera for One Singer and Piano_.

On her twenty-third birthday, Ran received two tickets for the world premiere of Tenoh's new opera and — much to Shinichi's surprise — insisted that he be her companion. The tickets were a present from her mother, she told him on the phone; and he had to go to Venice with her because — although he was still her best friend — he and she hadn't spent their free time together for months. Every time she returned to Tokyo to visit her parents, he was either busy running through some dubious districts of the city to collect information for a new case or abroad visiting his parents in New York. Over two years had passed since their last trip together; and six months had passed since the last time they met. Flying to Venice and going to Tenoh Haruka's and Hino Rei's concert would be a nice change from the daily phone calls during which they only exchanged some sentences about the weather, their friends and acquaintances, and their jobs...

Going with her to the concert was the greatest birthday present he could give her, she concluded.

Well, he didn't have a choice, did he? It only surprises him that he is actually enjoying himself instead of getting bored and counting the hours he is losing in Venice while he should be working on the new case for the ever-drunk Sleeping Kogoro.

However, when he begins to concentrate on the lyrics, Shinichi realizes that Hino Rei is singing about lost loves, lost memories, and grave errors in someone's past, at least according to the few words he can make out. But those few words are enough to remind him of his own grave errors and to break the spell.

The first act of Tenoh's _An Opera for One Singer and Piano _ends with a standing ovation. Shinichi, however, has begun to feel uneasy since the music stopped. Ordering Ran and himself some drinks, he excuses himself to go to the men's room and tells her that — provided the queue is not too long — he will come back before the first break ends.

With fast, regular steps he walks in the direction of the men's room and, after making sure that she is not following him, quickly leaves the opera.

x.


	3. Part One: Ai kun

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to Astarael00, the fastest beta-reader on Earth. :)**

x.

FS

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.  
(new version)

x.

_When we played our charade  
We were like children posing  
Playing at games  
Acting out names  
Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**3. "Ai-kun?"**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday evening, November __2nd 20xx)_

x.

"Ai-kun?"

"Yes, it's me. Sorry that I'm so late tonight — or so early, depending on how you want to look at it..."

"It doesn't matter. I haven't gone to bed yet. I always spend the whole night in front of the PC to surf the net, you know."

"I expected that... although I'm really late tonight. I met an old friend on the way and—"

"An old friend? Who—"

"She's not really a friend, just an acquaintance. But how are you, Professor?"

"I'm fine. Very fine, actually. It seems that I'll be up and about in a few weeks."

"I'm glad to hear that. But you shouldn't rush. Just wait until you are strong enough to stand up."

She doesn't need to worry about him. But how is she doing?

She is fine, she says, apart from the stress at work, the continuous flying back and forth. She was last week in Venice and flew directly afterwards to London to meet "somebody" who is a real specialist in antique vases.

Why antique vases all of the sudden, he asks. She has never been interested in old vases.

But she has been interested in antique vases for a while now, she tries to explain to him. She has always been interested in the old, historic things; and antique vases belong to that category, too.

Antique vases, the Ming Dynasty, China, the Professor thinks. China is not as far away from Japan as France. The flight will not be so long. Maybe he can visit her in a few weeks.

But now she explains to him that she is going to move to Venice because she likes everything "here" so much (the old buildings, museums, no cars, the rain and all the water here)... Paris was beautiful but got boring with time. By the way, she is just calling him from Venice.

Venice, La Fenice, Tenoh Haruka, Shinichi-kun and Ran-kun...

"I almost forgot to tell you, Shinichi-kun and Ran-kun are in Venice at the moment. Would you like to meet them? They're going to stay in Venice for about a week."

"I already met Kudo at the entrance of La Fenice. He told me they are watching an opera by Tenoh Haruka there, _An Opera for One Singer and Piano_. What a strange title."

"You've already met Shinichi-kun? But isn't he sitting in La Fenice at the moment? It's just..."

"He only wanted to catch a breath of fresh air during the first break. He has probably returned to his seat by now."

"Ah, that's why... So, have you noticed that something is wrong with him?"

"With Kudo? What do you mean with 'something is wrong with him?' To me, he doesn't seem to be different from usual; he bothered me with his boring cases, just as always."

It is strange that she of all people hasn't noticed it although she has always had such a good nose for the small incongruities. She used to pick up such kind of thing straightaway. But perhaps Shinichi-kun behaves differently towards her...

"It seems to me he somewhat misses you, Ai-kun."

"But it absolutely doesn't seem so to me, Professor... How did you get that idea?"

Shinichi-kun has changed very much since she went away, the Professor tells her. "He has become so quiet and taciturn. Sometimes I almost wonder if—"

"Well, I'm certainly not the reason for his melancholy. I'm sorry to interrupt you so suddenly, Professor, but I've just remembered that I must go now. I'm late already. I'll explain everything to you the next time I call you. I think I'll call you in a week at the latest."

"Alright, Ai-kun... But are you really fine? You don't seem very happy either—"

"Come on, I'd be absolutely exuberant if I didn't have a little cold. But I must really go now. I'll call you again next week. Bye."

"Bye," sighs Professor Agasa into the receiver and rolls his wheelchair into the kitchen to take his medicine, which he ought to have taken two hours ago. Why do the simplest things seem so complicated when Ai-kun is not around, he wonders. Maybe he should tell her how much he misses her. Maybe she would finally get herself a fixed line network or at least buy a mobile phone so that he can call her and listen to her voice every day.

x.

In Venice, Kudo Shinichi is leaving the phone box, putting his voice changing bowtie back into his pocket. The Professor sounds now like the lonely old man he is, Shinichi thinks on the way back to La Fenice. However, he knows very well that he can't do anything about it. The Detective Boys, Ran, and Shinichi himself are doing their best to cheer him up. But the fact remains that the Professor needs Ai; and none of them can ever replace her no matter how much they try.

A young woman in her mid twenties is hurrying towards the entrance of La Fenice and brushes slightly against his shoulder when she passes him. The familiar cut of her hair would have sent a chill down his spine if it was not an ash-blonde colour devoid of any reddish glimmer. When she turns to throw a distracted look at him, he automatically classifies her as one of those pretty, snobbish, innocent-looking girls who don't know what the word "scruple" means. He can remember that there was a girl during his Conan-phase who attempted to kill one of her best friends with her own nails. But, since he has learned to forget the things which would only have "elbowed out the useful ones", as Sherlock Holmes puts it, he has forgotten her name.

x.


	4. Part One: A glance at his watch

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to Astarael00, the fastest beta-reader on Earth. :)**

x.

FS

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.  
(new version)

x.

_When we played our charade  
We were like children posing  
Playing at games  
Acting out names  
Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**4. A glance at his watch...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday evening, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

A glance at his watch tells him that the second act will begin in one minute. The foyer is already completely deserted apart from a few ushers, himself, and the young woman who overtook him on the way back to La Fenice. Obviously, the audience has already been asked to return to their seats.

Usually, an opera — or the next act of an opera, in this case — seldom begins punctually anywhere, much less in Italy. But the Italians, whose public conveyances are famous for being late, are also famous for the fact that they would remember from time to time that the word "punctuality" exists, and would suddenly keep strictly to their schedule.

In front of him, the blonde stranger has begun to chat with the usher standing at the main entrance of the concert hall. "Surprised to see me?" "Of course I am; what are _you _doing here?" "I'd heard that 'he' would be here; but haven't you spotted him yet?" "I'm sure that 'he' has not walked past me, otherwise I'd remember it. Ask Luigi..."

About four — or five? — years ago, after deciding that they needed a language in which they could communicate with each other without having to fear that the children, who had got into the disturbing habit of eavesdropping them, could grasp the meaning of the things they said, Ai and he bought an Italian course and met up regularly in Agasa's cellar to study together. And when they were almost done with it — only "almost" because they lacked the required patience for such kind of wearisome systematic courses — she got the brilliant idea to translate the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories from English into Italian.

Being a die-hard Holmes-fan, he thought that it was a great idea and volunteered to assist her. Within a few weeks, they developed into two mystery-loving couch potatoes and shut themselves up in Agasa's cellar until both of them realized that they had better give it up, for it was a time-consuming diversion they couldn't afford.

As expected, they never managed to read all the Sherlock stories as they had originally planned. Instead, they began to banter with each other in Italian until both of them were fluent. Now that he thinks about it, it appears to him that things never turned out as planned when he was with her. Even the catastrophe three years ago seemed to be the logical consequence of their inability not to get into each other's way.

"But Luigi doesn't have any brains," the blonde stranger sighs dramatically, ignoring his attempt to pass her without having to shove her aside. Judging from the colour of her hair and the features of her face, he would say that she is Russian, although her almond-shaped eyes indicate the existence of some oriental ancestors.

But, despite her pretty, innocent face, which is a startling contrast to the ridiculously arrogant, artificial gestures she makes with her arms, she is of no real interest to him. Another stranger has appeared at the door, diverting his attention from her.

It is a dark, polished-looking young man balancing a glass of champagne between his thumb and index finger (while his little finger is, to Shinichi's amusement, aristocratically spread out). To avoid bumping into the usher who, just like her friend, is gesticulating wildly with her arms — "You know Luigi, he falls in love with every pretty woman he can't get; and Seiya's secretary is completely out of Luigi's reach, so—" — he makes a step in Shinichi's direction and, colliding with the blonde woman who has just stepped back, spills the champagne.

"I'm very sorry," he says to the blonde woman. "Are you alright?" Obviously, he belongs to the dying species of gentlemen who apologize to a woman despite thinking that they are in the right.

She is perfectly alright, she tells him (both of them know that he didn't spill anything on her at all) and continues to chat with her friend, whereupon he turns to Shinichi and repeats his question, adding a crestfallen: "Sorry for spilling my champagne on you."

He doesn't mind the few champagne stains on his trousers, Shinichi replies. However, he must admit that it surprises him to see somebody leaving the hall now that the second act is about to begin.

They always let the audience wait for at least five minutes, the stranger says. Since they removed the gong in La Fenice, they have got into the habit of calling the audience in about five minutes before the scheduled time and then waiting for another five to ten minutes to begin the new act because they want to give the audience enough time to prepare themselves for the music.

That makes sense. But why did they remove the gong, Shinichi would like to ask. But, as time is running short, he decides to end the conversation and content himself with a simple, "Ah, that's why," before saying goodbye to the champagne-balancing stranger and returning to his seat.

x.

Relieved that he has come in time for the second act (so he didn't stumble across any corpses this time?), Ran accepts Shinichi's tale about over-crowded toilets and a long queue without asking for any details. Probably she even believes that he tells her the truth, for he has learnt to lie very fluently, without batting an eyelid. During those years pretending to be Conan and then pretending to be Ai, Shinichi has learnt to appreciate the soothing, alleviating effect of white lies and uses them now without scruple. Why should he feel guilty for lying when, compared to his closely-guarded black secret, every lie is white?

"Eternity," sings Hino in fortissimo, "eteeeeeerniiiiity..."

She suddenly stops and begins to sing very quietly the same word over and over again while the piano accompanies her with fast broken chords. But this time, Tenoh seems to lost control over his — no, _her!_ — fingers, for the arpeggios are loud and insensitive, clumsily drowning out the voice of the singer. To make matters worse, Tenoh doesn't even seem to notice it.

What a pity that the great Tenoh Haruka is either almost deaf or a pathetic show-off, a self-centred, egoistical wannabe-musician, Shinichi thinks. However, he must admit that she is a skilled cross-dresser. He needed almost two acts to figure out that she is a woman; and even now he cannot tell how he could notice it. She is wearing the classical black tailcoat male musicians usually wear during their concerts, a pair of black trousers, a white shirt with a high collar and a small violet scarf. Certainly she has bound her breasts as women who disguise themselves as men often do, for Shinichi cannot detect any revealing female shapes. For a woman, she is strikingly tall; and her features are so androgynous that it is impossible to guess her real gender just by looking at her face.

Even though Tenoh Haruka's little masquerade intrigues Shinichi, her music has abruptly ceased to be of any interest to him. His post-antidote headaches have come back, reminding him that, if he doesn't do anything about them before the opera ends, he will spend the rest of the night wishing he had never been born.

A familiar colour catches his eye when he shifts his position, striking a chill into his heart. Four rows in front of him, a young woman is sitting, almost completely obscured by a ponderous couple behind her, which is certainly the reason he hasn't spotted her until now. This time, there is no ash-blonde colour or ridiculously artificial gestures to remind him that ghosts do not exist. The familiar shape of her head, her neck and her shoulders, the distinctive colour of her hair, her hair-cut and even her collected, calm pose remind him of Ai's.

When the audience rises to give the two musicians on the stage another standing ovation, he loses sight of her due to the obese couple blocking his view. But, owing to the vibrant colour of her hair, Ai's double is not hard to find. On the way to the door she turns and looks about herself, showing him her face, which resembles Miyano Shiho's perfectly. However, despite her staggering similarity to Haibara Ai, there are a few details which dash Shinichi's hopes the moment he sees her face.

It is easy to change your appearance, but not your way of moving. That's why it is so easy to recognize somebody you know from afar.

He has tried to banish the memories of her from his mind. But he still remembers her faint smile, her ironic smirk and her composed facade. Camouflages for her insecurity. This woman, however, carries herself with natural ease — as if she is really at peace with herself.

And Haibara Ai would never, ever, voluntarily wear black.

x.


	5. Part One: All of the tables are already

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to Astarael00, the fastest beta-reader on Earth. :)**

x.

FS

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.  
(new version)

x.

_When we played our charade  
We were like children posing  
Playing at games  
Acting out names  
Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**5. All of the tables are already occupied...**

(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday evening, November 2nd 20xx)

x.

All of the tables are already occupied when Shinichi and Ran leave the concert hall. After buying themselves two glasses of champagne at the bar, they decide to spend the rest of the second break strolling about La Fenice, beholding the photographs on the walls. In contrast to Ran, who obviously enjoys their little excursion, Shinichi is inwardly cursing himself for losing sight of Ai's double after leaving the hall. He had only taken his eyes from her for a few seconds to turn to Ran and answer her question about whether he had understood the lyrics or not. After telling Ran that he had not understood much except for the "eternity", he looked up and "Haibara Ai" was gone.

Resisting the impulse to comb the opera house for her, he forces himself to concentrate on the framed monochrome photos of various musicians, singers, conductors and dancers and to pay attention to Ran's little comments and enthusiastic exclamations.

"Look, Shinichi! Aino Minako is only one year older than me and has already performed in over sixty plays." Ran points towards the picture of a pretty woman in a long low-cut evening dress whose bright smile reminds Shinichi of his mother's. Just like Kudo Yukiko, Aino Minako likes to be photographed.

"Impressive... But I'm sure you've left more lasting impressions on others than Aino: you had beaten far more than sixty opponents before you went to Osaka, not to mention the random criminals you had almost taken out."

She laughs.

"I'm in a good mood and will take it as a compliment," she says. "I can't beat you here in front of so many people, after all."

Shinichi lets his eyes roam about the crowded corridor while Ran continues to read the article on Aino Minako. The counterfeit Haibara Ai must be either in the foyer or at the bar at this moment, unless she has left the opera house to catch a breath of fresh air, which is improbable in this weather, he thinks. He does not try to search for her, as he knows he will see her again when the third act starts. Running after her would mean either to leave Ran alone again or arousing her suspicion. Even Ran, who is one of the most trusting people he knows, would immediately become suspicious if she met a woman looking exactly like Haibara Ai, who is supposed to be thirteen years old and who had allegedly gone to New York to live with her "distant aunt and uncle" and her "distant cousin Edogawa Conan."

Furthermore, it wouldn't be the first time he made a fool of himself in front of a stranger by calling her by Ai's name, Shinichi muses. Despite his powers of observation, he had mistaken so many women for Ai in the first months after her disappearance that he had begun to question his eyesight. Sometimes those women had only dressed themselves as he had expected Ai to dress herself if she had returned to her original size; and more often he had to admit that they didn't look like her at all after he had approached them.

"What a beautiful picture," Ran exclaims, stopping in front of a photograph of Tenoh Haruka which was taken during a rehearsal. To Shinichi's surprise, the young man who spilled his champagne on him before the second act is standing at the piano next to Tenoh, apparently discussing the scores with her. According to the comment underneath the photo, his name is "Mamoru Chiba" — "Chiba Mamoru" in Japanese — a friend of Tenoh's. He looks a few years older than her in the photo, Shinichi thinks, like a man in his thirties. He seemed younger to Shinichi when they met at the door.

"But Tenoh-sama looks a bit too pretty in this picture. He looks almost like a woman, don't you think so?"

Shinichi smiles to himself, amused. Ran often has those ingenious streaks which she always dismisses. If she were not Suzuki Sonoko's best friend, he would tell her that she has just discovered the closely-guarded secret of Tenoh Haruka. However, the thought of Suzuki Sonoko was sufficient to convince him that — as Tenoh might have a good reason to hide her real gender from the public — he should keep his discovery for himself instead of dumping the responsibility on Ran and force her to withhold such vital information from her friend.

"Yes, he looks a bit too pretty for a man," he says and, in order to draw her attention away from Tenoh and the question of Tenoh's gender, proceeds to the next picture. "But perhaps it's just the photographer. This one looks pretty effeminate, too."

"Seiya Kou," is the name of the young man whose profile they are beholding, according to the short article next to the photograph. Remembering that he had heard the name "Seiya" from the gossiping usher at the entrance to the concert hall, Shinichi surmises that this man might be the "he", whom the Russian woman — the one with Ai's haircut — had talked about. He is a rather soft-looking young man with a very pretty face which is evocative of boy groups and screaming adolescent girls. His long, curly black ponytail, the short fringe on his forehead and the moon-shaped earrings only add insult to injury. However, there is no doubt that he is a man, as he is wearing a thin white silk shirt which would undoubtedly betray revealing shapes if there were any. There is nothing as convincing as the powers of suggestion, Shinichi thinks. Once Ran's mind has made a connection between this photo and Tenoh's photo, the idea that Tenoh might be a woman will never again cross her mind.

"Oh, it's really the photographer. Seiya-sama doesn't look like this," Ran laughs.

Shinichi carefully avoids asking her how she knows what Seiya Kou looks like. The article says that Seiya Kou was once the lead singer, part-time drummer and guitarist of Three Lights, a famous band whose name Shinichi had heard Suzuki Sonoko mention at school every day before he was shrunk. He has never liked bands like the Three Lights whose performances are always sold-out and whose names make school girls squeal, which is why he never went to a concert of theirs. Judging from what he has heard on the radio, the Three Lights were just a good band among many other good bands, with a lead singer whose voice was definitely more pleasant than his smug face and his cool expression. Probably Ran had seen him on TV during a sleep-over at Sonoko's.

"I saw him once on TV when I visited Sonoko," Ran says.

"Ah, that's why," Shinichi remarks listlessly and pulls her away from the photos, back to the bar to return the champagne glasses. He doesn't particularly enjoy Ran's Sonoko-related talks, as he feels they will unavoidably lead to the one question he has dreaded since he agreed to go to Venice with her.

"Sonoko was extremely unhappy when the Three Lights split up," Ran continues. "But then Seiya-sama began to sing again, this time musicals. Sonoko says we must watch _The Phantom of the Opera_ on Sunday, if we have time. She told me she would try to get tickets... Maybe she can convince Kyogoku-san to come, too. What do you think? Perhaps we can go out and have dinner together afterwards. And we can go to the cinema together on Monday. I haven't gone to the cinema for ages..."

That is exactly what he has feared. After seeing Ran's huge suitcase, he knew that Ran planned to stay in Venice for longer than just "three or four days" (as she had told him). He even considers it a good idea, as both of them need to take a break from their work. However, he has forebodings about meeting Sonoko again, whose set dislike for him greatly intensified after Valentine's Day three years ago. In her view, which she repeatedly makes clear every time they meet, he had played with Ran's feelings for seven years by pretending to be in love with her and then dumped her on the first Valentine's Day after his return. To make matters worse, Sonoko has set herself the formidable task of convincing Ran that it is humiliating to keep in touch with him despite everything he had done to her. Sonoko has been living in Venice for about three months (since she decided to study art history) and is now the proud owner of an old villa to which she has invited Ran many times. For this reason — and regardless of knowing Ran's frank personality — Shinichi has a nagging suspicion that Ran had planned to take him to Sonoko's villa since the beginning (since she asked him to watch Tenoh's opera with her). It wouldn't be the first time she tried to reconcile her quarrelling friends — and this Venice trip must seem to her like a fabulous chance she absolutely cannot miss.

"Well, what do you think about it, Shinichi? I won't force you to stay here until next week if you don't want to. I know you have a lot of work to do in Tokyo..." She gives him a bright, disarming smile.

"Oh, I really don't have much to do in Tokyo," he says, resigned. "Your father can do without me for a while."

x.

They have returned to the hall immediately after giving back their glasses because Ran was afraid of being late for the third act. However, her fear proves totally groundless, for fifteen minutes have already elapsed since the scheduled beginning of the third act without any of the musicians showing up on stage. The audience does not seem to be bothered by the delay, as a few people are still standing in front of the open entrances of the hall, chatting casually while the rest content themselves with reading their brochures, playing games on their mobile phones or discussing the first two acts of the opera with their neighbours. Tenoh Haruka has become rather unreliable recently, Shinichi learns from the elegant elderly English gentleman sitting directly behind him. As "Mr. Haruka Tenoh" has got into the habit of letting "his" audience wait for fifteen minutes to half an hour before the last part of his concerts, his long-suffering fans, who are accustomed to accepting all his quirks and whims, are prepared for this kind of delay and endure it with good humour.

"Usually, fans of classical music are not so forgiving," the man adds. "But Mr. Haruka Tenoh belongs to the few musicians who can take the liberty of doing whatever they like without having to fear punishment from anyone."

"I suppose that was the reason they removed the gong," Shinichi remarks with a wry smile.

"What gong?" Ran asks.

"I heard there was a gong which announces the beginning of a new act," he tells her. "Perhaps they thought that such a gong would only make the audience nervous because it reminds them of the time the new act is supposed to start... Waiting is so much more painful when you know that it isn't necessary. Anyway, I'm already nervous enough without the gong."

His nervousness, however, has less to do with the third act of the opera than with the empty seat four rows in front of him. Although the ushers are closing the doors to the concert hall, the woman looking so much like Ai has still not returned.

"Did I tell you that Kazuha-chan has decided to join the police force?" Ran suddenly asks without warning.

Shinichi stiffens. "No, you didn't."

"She thinks it will give her life a new meaning. She has been extremely depressed and aimless since Hattori... you know..."

"I know."

"Do you think it's a good idea?"

"Of course it's a good idea. Over three years have passed... almost four. She is too young to bury herself in her apartment for the rest of her life. It's time for her to move on."

It is always the same whenever they meet. She would try to touch the wound again as if she still hopes that, some day, he will open up and give her a detailed, truthful account about the happenings of that fateful night three years ago. Even though she cannot know that he has lied to her (that he has lied to everybody!) about the explosion three years ago, her amazing intuition must have told her that he has more information about Hattori's death than he gave away. And, persistent as she has always been, she just cannot — or does not want to — accept that he will not share his secret with her.

"It's not so easy to forget somebody you've loved for your whole life," she says with a faraway look. But this time he does not answer. Whenever she alludes to the problem of their failed relationship, an odd twinge of regret would come over him — "odd" because it does not remind him of that Valentine's Day when he idiotically pretended to mistake her chocolate heart for a chocolate peach once again but of a song he had heard in an old movie, in _Charade_...

As always, he just returns to his shell and waits until the feeling is gone.

He has almost forgotten the reason they are sitting in La Fenice when the lights suddenly dim and the curtains open. Hino Rei — with a face as pale as snow and suspiciously red eyes — is followed by two men: a middle-aged Italian, who is staring in a state of shock into the crowd, and the majestic-looking young man who had spilled his champagne on Shinichi before the beginning of the second act: Chiba Mamoru.

"I'm very sorry for the delay," the Italian says. His hands holding the microphone are shaking, and Shinichi notices that he is sweating and is unable to keep his facial expression the same for two seconds. "Miss... Mister Haruka Tenoh is not feeling well. Mister Mamoru Chiba, who is the greatest amateur musician I know, is going to replace h... him and accompany Miss Rei Hino during the last act of the opera! I hope you will enjoy it despite Mister Tenoh's absence. By the way—" his voice cracks, "is there a doctor among us who can help?"

Without thinking, Shinichi raises his hand and leaves his seat.

Whispering to Ran — who is throwing a pained look at him — that he will return as soon as possible, he climbs on the stage and follows the Italian to the dressing rooms while Chiba Mamoru, who has adjusted the height of the piano stool in the meantime, begins the third part of the opera with a few grave chords, which could as well have belonged to a funeral march.

It might have been irresponsible to claim to be a doctor in this situation, Shinichi thinks. At the same time, he doesn't regret what he has done, for there is this sixth sense of his which has never betrayed him when it comes to crime. And — although he feels genuinely sorry for her and hopes that his fears will be proven wrong — he doubts that Tenoh Haruka will ever appear in front of her audience again.

x.


	6. Part One: Commissario Lele Carrara

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story (and who didn't even complain about having to beta a chapter which is longer than 8600 words!) :)**

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**13. Commissario Lele Carrara, the only...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view_)

x.

Commissaro Lele Carrara, the only dispassionate observer of the scene, is immensely intrigued by the unexpected love triangle which has just manifested itself in front of his eyes. Scolding himself for not noticing it earlier, he grudgingly admits that he ought to have known it the moment he saw how Shinichi Kudo reacted to her name. Despite joking about Kudo looking as if he were about to faint and wondering whether she had been his "secretary" as well, Lele didn't really give his own theory a second thought at that time. When she came out of Seiya Kou's dressing room, however, he instantly knew that there must have been some kind of history between them, something emotionally intense which ended badly, because there is no way a person like Shinichi Kudo would lose his cool at the sight of an old friend. She, too, has demonstratively tried to keep him at a distance, snubbing him mercilessly while stealing furtive glances at his face whenever he got distracted by her boyfriend, and Lele is positive that — if it weren't for Seiya Kou and himself — their reunion would have been quite different, although he can't really imagine how it would have been.

"Sorry about that," Shinichi Kudo hypocritically apologizes to her, indicating her glass with a wry smile. "I thought I've seen a fly."

"Never mind. You've always had two left hands and poor eyesight," she nonchalantly waves his apology away with an insult which almost resembles an endearment when one doesn't pay attention to her words but only to her tone.

From the look of things, the two of them must have been either lovers or at least entangled in a complicated platonic romance which abruptly ended when she went abroad four years ago. Apparently, the letters got lost, life happened, and now, after successfully moving on, they run into each other again while holidaying in Venice with their respective current partners. What a fateful reunion!

There also seem to be some lingering feelings beneath the resentment, Lele thinks, and if they were both unattached, he would bet that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow at the latest they would be waking up in the same hotel room. But as things are, his lovely fiancée (the dark-haired girl is most probably his fiancée or girlfriend even though, for an unknown reason, the detective denies that he was the one who gave her the ring she wore on the wrong hand) and her excessively attractive boyfriend (whom she undeniably loves, judging from the expression in her eyes whenever she looks at him), added to the fact that Shinichi Kudo won't be staying in Venice for long, are formidable obstacles to their happy ending.

"But it's lucky that you knew exactly where to find a napkin," the detective remarks in a sharp voice, ignoring both Seiya Kou's and Lele's presence. Without doubt, he is the type of man who forgets himself when he is really jealous.

"I knew where to find it because it was me who put it in there," she dryly replies while Seiya Kou, in a well-meant attempt to take the innuendo out of her sentence, lightly adds: "Shiho is even responsible for the contents of my pockets" before he loses control of himself and bursts out laughing at the unintentional drollness of his own comment.

Oddly enough, the singer is the most difficult to make out although, at first glance, he seemed like the most open and approachable of the three, Lele observes. Seiya Kou has been perfectly amiable throughout the whole affair, showing no sign of jealousy or possessiveness. On the contrary, he seems to acknowledge the past between Shinichi Kudo and his girlfriend with the same laid-back attitude with which he deals with the knowledge that he is currently suspected of murder.

"What's so funny?" she inquiringly raises her brow at him.

"Sorry," he gently says, lips curved up in a mocking smile, winking at her with a mischievious gleam in his eyes.

It's difficult to tell whether he is really innocent or simply so ruthless and self-assured that he doesn't fear either Lele or Kudo although it is clearly evident that, despite his lack of jealousy, he is passionately devoted to her. If it weren't for Shinichi Kudo's trap and the reaction of the girl, he would undoubtedly have kept up his elaborate pretence; and by the end of the interrogation, Lele would most probably have believed his tall story that they are only good friends sharing an apartment while enjoying a harmless little flirt, passing her off as his secretary who he is unhappily in love with to keep his female fans away. He has hidden their relationship well behind many layers of make-believe and lies, and Lele hazily wonders whether he would stop at murder to protect her.

x.

Inwardly, Shiho is incandescent with rage at each of the three men, starting from the impertinent commissario (who dared to openly insult her and whose presence prevents her from behaving like herself) to Kudo (who — despite all the things they went through with each other before, at and on Pandora's Box — didn't even bat an eyelid when he unscrupulously spilled water all over her to satisfy his curiosity) to Seiya, the traitor who apparently changed sides the moment she took his napkin and who is now cheekily grinning at her, enjoying himself at her expense. Why he couldn't even pretend to be angered at Kudo's gesture is beyond her comprehension.

Apparently, all the three of them have set themselves the goal of antagonizing her tonight. And since she can't do much about the first two in this situation, Shiho decides to take out her anger on the last one, flashing him an ominous look which tells him very clearly that she has taken notice of his betrayal and that he is going to suffer the consequences for his insolent behaviour later because there is no way that this won't have any repercussions.

Well, at least that's what Seiya thinks what Shiho is thinking. And since Seiya trusts his ability to read her thoughts or at least most of them, he winces at all the things she might do to him if he doesn't manage to appease her before they are home. The last time he got under her skin by giving a few of her APAH painkillers to Rei-chan she had been furious, launching into a tirade about the dangers of using an unknown drug personalized for someone else's requirements and about how he should never, ever, rummage through her medicine chest again, much less steal her painkillers without asking her beforehand. And when he rebelliously dismissed it with a grin and readily promised her to behave himself without really meaning it, she had punished him by mixing something into his coffee that knocked him out for a whole day, causing him to miss a rehearsal and fight sleep during his own performance. A woman who would go as far as ruining his concert for a practical joke is an accident waiting to happen, Taiki has told him. And while Seiya believes that Taiki, once again, is absolutely right (just like Taiki was probably right when he foresaw that she would wrap Seiya round her little finger and break his heart some day), Seiya can't deny that her short-tempered and difficult character is one of the many things about her which fascinate him.

Letting his eyes roam over the table, Seiya wonders why they all seem so subdued and why he seems to be the only one who found the incident with the water hilarious. It was such a great idea in its simplicity, and the promptness with which Kudo put his thought into action drew Seiya's admiration because none of them had anticipated it. Seiya has always appreciated a truly formidable opponent and, while he naturally prefers winning, doesn't mind losing to such an opponent once in a while. If she weren't such a bad loser, Shiho would have acknowledged that she has been thoroughly defeated by her friend and his accurate judgment of her fastidious character, utilizing her almost neurotic sense of order (something Seiya is still fighting against after all these years) to throw her off balance and induce her to give up her pretence. But the most funny thing about Kudo's wonderful test was that, in the end, when it comes to the nature of Seiya and Shiho's relationship, it actually didn't prove anything.

The only thing it really proved was that Shiho knew he had a napkin, Seiya thinks, wondering what type of woman Kudo knows. The women Kudo knows are probably extremely well-behaved, distant or shy towards their male friends, the very opposite to the brazen women Seiya knows because Seiya can immediately think of at least three or four other women who would also have borrowed his napkin even though there hasn't been anything between him and them. Minako-chan, for example, would have done it without further ado or — and this is even more likely — ask him to wipe her instead. Rei-chan, Odango and Shizuka-san certainly wouldn't have hesitated to take a napkin out of his pocket either, and it is a mystery to Seiya why Kudo believes that Shiho wouldn't take a napkin out of the pocket of a good friend. In Seiya's eyes, Shiho has never been the shy type although, now that Seiya is thinking about it, he must admit that she did have an odd aversion to touching other people when they first met.

"Why do you keep a napkin in your pocket?" Kudo asks him.

"I don't know," he answers truthfully. "Shiho put it into my pocket."

Very funny, says Kudo's glare. If you don't want to tell me the truth, I'm going to find it out on my own.

But it is the honest truth, Seiya thinks. Shiho and he often sneak random things into each other's pockets and like to steal each other's stuff (with the exception of APAH and her precious necklace from Kudo, the only two things of hers he is not allowed to touch). Seiya knows very well that his talent of bringing out her childish side and enjoying himself almost anywhere at any time is one of the few reasons Shiho is still living with him in spite of his incurable recklessness and his ability to irk her to no end (which usually happens when he is enjoying himself too much at her expense or when he decides to play a prank on someone and chooses her as his next victim). Tonight he has enjoyed himself, too, because their little charade in front of Carrara has allowed him to tease her endlessly by treating her like his little princess, something she would never let him do to her without making a sarcastic remark when they are alone.

"What did you do before talking to Signora Kino?" Carrara asks, giving him a grave and fatherly look as if he feels sorry for this youthful delinquent he will have to arrest soon. Dream on, dear commissario, Seiya thinks, dream on.

"I visited Rei in her dressing room. We didn't talk for long, though," he says, suppressing a yawn because he wants to appear perfectly polite and amiable tonight, showing himself from his best side to Shiho's best friend and unrequited love from four years ago.

"Do you know what time it was?" Kudo asks, fixing him with steely greyish blue eyes that seem to peer into the very depth of his soul.

"About a quarter past eight," he replies, not at all intimidated by the skeptical looks both Carrara and Kudo are giving him. It's not his fault if they can't believe the truth, Seiya thinks in amusement — disregarding the thought that, in a way, it is his fault — and he is the last person interested in assisting them with their investigation.

"How come you know the time if you don't wear a watch?" Kudo coolly asks, making Seiya wonder whether the sleuth is always so hostile towards a suspect or whether he has developed a personal aversion against him. If Shiho hadn't shown him her cage-shaped pendant and told him about Kudo's total indifference to her charms (It seemed they were in the same boat, she had said, because her detective had a childhood crush he had wanted to marry since elementary school), Seiya would have been under the impression that Kudo is jealous of him.

"The clock on Rei's dressing room table said it was eight fifteen," Seiya shrugs, dismissing the idea that Kudo might be in love with her as absurd since it doesn't make sense to him. After all, the absent-minded private eye failed to fetch her and another friend of his from "Pandora's Box No. 1" (Seiya has given numbers to the ship, the cabin and the computer because he found the fact that they all shared the same name confusing!) while going for a walk with his childhood love, according to both Haruka-san and Ami-chan. And even though Seiya can understand that one forgets the time when one is reunited with the girl one has been in love with for one's whole life, he doubts that Kudo had any romantic feelings for Shiho (or Haibara, as Kudo always called her) because — in a life and death situation — he obviously forgot about her over another girl.

In all probability, Haruka-san was wrong when she claimed that there had been strong feelings on both sides, and Kudo only dislikes the thought that Shiho seems to be cohabiting with a jerk who takes advantage of the fact that she can't afford an apartment in Venice and misuses her situation to corrupt her innocence because Kudo, as a good friend of hers, feels responsible for her well-being.

Satisfied with the conclusion, Seiya turns on his charm and directs his nicest smile at the detective who, being the stern and mistrustful type, doesn't return it.

"You didn't look at the clock in the café when you were having a drink with Kino. Why did you look at the clock in Hino's dressing room?" Kudo asks, trying to trap him with the reversed order, which Seiya, once again, finds vaguely amusing.

"I looked at it because I wondered when Haruka would stop reading and finally decide to grace the audience with her presence," he flippantly answers, taking a sip of his water after secretly giving Shiho, who is watching him with worried eyes, another suggestive wink, one of the type that never fails to make her blush although, this time, he can't tell whether she is blushing because she is embarrassed or because she is angry at him. Pulling himself together, Seiya tells himself to hold on a bit longer so that she doesn't need to be ashamed of her "employer" although the memory of her groaning "That's the stupidest excuse you could have come up with because now people will think that you're sleeping with me and paying me!" threatens to crack him up. She had been fretting for days after Makoto-chan's and Minako-chan's surprise visit until he managed to soothe her with the philosophy that reputation was _"an idle and most false imposition"_ and that life was actually much more pleasant when you were no longer concerned about it.

"So she read a lot?" Kudo asks curtly, in a voice which could freeze the Sahara. Perhaps he is still irked about the lost letters and feels like taking his anger out on somebody? It's a pity that Seiya can't tell Kudo that Shiho hadn't only written those letters but also sent them long mails every week without knowing that the person who answered them was neither her beloved Professor Agasa nor (her equally beloved!) Kudo Shinichi.

"Compulsively," Seiya unscrupulously lies since they clearly don't believe him when he tells the truth. "I know only few people who are as well-read as she was."

One of Seiya's many talents — nobody needs to tell Seiya Kou that he has a myriad of talents since self-confidence is the last thing he lacks — is his ability to slip into any role and make even himself believe anything he says, no matter how outrageous the lie. He seldom makes use of this ability when he is not in front of the camera or on stage. However, he belongs to the people who show grace under pressure and fight tedium with mischief. And while he has been under intense pressure during the past hours, this interrogation feels like an anticlimax to the evening and has begun to bore him.

"Did you have to read a lot at Infinity?" Kudo asks Shiho in passing, in the same casual tone in which he mentioned Stinger a few minutes ago. Although he is as affable as a brick, the man would make a great actor if he only had the aspiration, Seiya distractedly thinks while wishing for Rei-chan to call him at once so that Shiho and he can finally excuse themselves and go home.

"Only the literature students," she replies with a tiny smile, apparently still impressed at how Kudo has found out about Stinger and Infinity during such a short time (or didn't he discover it tonight but remembered it because he read about it in Pandora's Box No. 2?). Noticing in dismay that she can't take her eyes off Kudo's face, Seiya inwardly sighs and decides to distract himself from the painful reality that she still has feelings for Kudo by imagining her naked.

"Since Haruka was an athlete, nobody forced her to read anything," he can hear her voice telling Kudo before he feels her foot kicking at his shin and meets her warning glare which startles him out of his pleasant day dream.

"And you were an athlete at Infinity, too?" Kudo gives him an innocent — though still glacial — smile and adds in a poor attempt to distract him from the deception: "You look like one, and you have great reflexes."

"No, I wasn't," Seiya replies, slightly irked at the realization that both Kudo and Carrara assume that he is a vain idiot. Deciding to fit perfectly into the pigeonhole they have designed for him, he cheerily laughs, giving a brilliant performance of the good-humoured airhead they all want him to be: "I'm a natural athlete, actually. But since I knew I'd never have passed their IQ test, I never dared to apply for Infinity."

"I didn't know one could apply for Infinity," Kudo leans towards Shiho, eyes bright with curiosity and excitement. "Wasn't it an exclusive academy at which you had to wear black school uniforms and drink Stinger during your black-tie parties and which you could only attend if you belonged to the few chosen ones?" They shamelessly lock eyes with each other for a moment, ignoring their surroundings completely.

No, one had to wear starched white shirts and drink mineral water during the striped-bow-tie parties and it was boring as hell, Seiya thinks, no longer inclined to ask Kudo to share a bottle of Sherry with him.

"You could always apply for it," Shiho shoots him another worried and warning glance, "although the final decision usually rested with Professor Tomoe. Haruka was actually one of the people who applied for it... And the school uniforms weren't black! Professor Tomoe strongly objected to that. They were green and brown."

"Green and brown," Seiya remembers the sharp, slightly broken voice of Professor Tomoe at his ear while gazing curiously after the retreating figure of the girl who, at that time, wasn't more to him than a white lab coat in a rather dubious-looking black crowd. "The colours of the trees and the earth and the last thing that stayed in or flew out of the jar. Will you join us and wear it for me? Or do you think that black would be a more suitable colour for you at Infinity?"

x.

**AN: **Yay, short chapter this time. And SN betaed it immediately despite work stress and lack of sleep. :D


	7. Part One: As expected

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story. :)**

x.

FS

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**7. As expected...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday night, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

As expected, the medical examiner — a tiny man in his late fifties who appears to be on friendly terms with Commissario Carrara — is uncertain about the cause of Tenoh's death.

"I can't tell you officially before the autopsy, but I think she must have died naturally," he tells Carrara and Shinichi in a hushed voice. "From the look of her corpse, she might as well have died in her sleep. It's for the best... given the circumstances."

"It seems so, especially if we don't find any trace of poison in the cup," Carrara remarks. "So, Signora Haruka Tenoh, who looked like the paragon of good health, apparently drank a cup of water, then collapsed and died of an unknown disease."

"That's indeed very strange," the medical examiner admits. "In my whole life, I've never come across a case like this one. I'm looking forward to the autopsy."

"When can you tell me the results?"

"Tomorrow morning. It might take me a bit longer if I don't find anything. But I think I'll be able to give you a call by tomorrow afternoon at the latest."

Meanwhile, Tenoh's corpse has been put onto a stretcher and is lying there like somebody who has just fallen asleep. In spite of the growing impatience of the white-clad attendants, who are eager to finish their job as fast as possible to go home, Carrara insists that they wait until the last person has left the opera before conveying Tenoh's corpse to the hospital. The technicians can leave, he orders in an authoritative voice, but the attendants must stay. It is out of question to parade Tenoh's corpse around, especially when reporters might already be in the house.

"Do you have a theory you'd like to share?" Carrara asks Shinichi after the technicians and the medical examiner have left. They have switched from Italian to English automatically, as Carrara seems to be inordinately proud of his hard-earned fluency.

"I don't have any theories. At first glance, it looks as if she died while drinking a cup of water. There is no evidence that a poison has been used."

Gaining Commissario Lele Carrara's trust was easier than expected owing to the fact that the internet — accessible on Carrara's 3G smartphone — is full of Kudo-Shinichi fan websites with Shinichi's photos and newspaper articles about him. While most of them are in Japanese, there are also a few in English which have put their own gloss on the story of how "Japan's greatest consulting detective Shinichi Kudo" has "single-handedly" brought down the Black Organization while avoiding a bloodshed. With such glowing references, Shinichi has naturally gone up in Carrara's estimation.

"Andrea is right. It would be for the best if she died naturally," Carrara remarks. "Signora Tenoh had many prestigious friends, and I know my supervisor... If we don't find a trace of poison, I'm sure I'll be ordered to stop the investigation."

Despite being of the opinion that it is pointless to worry about the investigation before knowing the results of the autopsy, Shinichi can comprehend Carrara's dilemma. Tenoh Haruka wasn't just a talented young pianist whose name would fade into obscurity a few months after her death, only to be remembered by her colleagues, real fans of classical music and her own friends and family. From the things he has found out about her on the internet, she belonged to the upper crust, moved in the highest social circles, was a former motor racing star and, on top of that, a well-known figure in fashionable, artistic and political circles. Investigating the case without finding a poison would be regarded as confirming unsubstantiated rumours about her death, something Carrara cannot afford to do if he wants to keep his position in the Questura.

"Would you mind me following you around during the investigation? This case really intrigues me."

"It's my pleasure... especially because, as a private detective, you are at liberty to do things I'm not allowed to do," Carrara replies with a meaningful smile. "Since the autopsy is conducted by Andrea, I'm sure we will get the results as soon as possible. In the meantime, I'd feel honoured to have you in my company when I question the people who talked to Signora Tenoh tonight. Would you like to have another look at this room before we go?"

Inspecting the dressing room for a second time, Shinichi learns that there is nothing worth mentioning apart from what he has already seen. There have been talks about Tenoh's bag, which Tenoh presumably left in the backstage café when she picked up the cup of water. Unfortunately, Carrara has had the bag sent to the Questura before Shinichi had the chance to look at it.

"May I have a look at the contents of her bag?"

"Tomorrow at the Questura," Carrara says, fishing his notebook out of a pocket of his coat. "But I can show you a list of its contents."

Two English versions of _The Phantom of the Opera_ (the original by Gaston Leroux and another version by Susan Kay), a wallet with a bit of money and a credit card under her name, a mechanical pencil, an eraser, and a book (_Awareness Through Movements_) by Moshe Feldenkrais with an old photo which functioned as a bookmark...

"The photo which Tenoh used as a bookmark, can I have a look at the pictures of it on your phone?"

"You don't overlook anything, do you? Here, I've taken pictures of both sides because there is a note on the back. It probably doesn't have anything to do with the case, but I'd still be thankful if you could translate the contents of the note to me. It's written in Japanese."

The photo shows young Tenoh Haruka, about sixteen or seventeen years old, with sandy blonde hair which seems to have become lighter as she got older, standing on a beach in front of the breath-taking panorama of the sea and the setting sun. She is wearing jeans, a brown leather jacket and a red scarf while the man next to her is clad in a white lab coat and white trousers. Despite his clothes and his large round glasses, he reminds Shinichi slightly of Subaru Okiya. Both of them are smirking into the camera.

After swiping to the photo Carrara took of the note, Shinichi zooms in and needs a few seconds to decipher the almost illegible handwriting which resembles abstract doodles in faded black ink.

"For SB. Good luck to your next race and remember what I told you about M. Professor T," says the note, which seems to have been scribbled down with an old ballpoint pen. Apart from "SB", "M" and "T", which are letters in Roman alphabet, the words are written in kanji.

"SB and M," Carrara says. "I can't make head or tail of it."

"Professor T... He looks familiar to me."

"Maybe he was her professor at Infinity," Carrara remarks. "Signora Tenoh was there during her racing career."

Infinity... It was a prestigious private academy in Azabu Juuban which was burned down when Shinichi was fifteen or sixteen, although he can't remember more about the case because he was already busy solving murder cases at that time. He can only remember reading about it in the news. A luxurious private institution only reserved for gifted young people, prodigies and teenagers with exceptional talents... The person who burned it down was a certain Professor Tomoe Souichi.

_"Kudo, look: Professor Tomoe, the mad scientist, is a member of the Organization. He even has a cocktail code name."_

Who said that to him? Ai... or Hattori? It must have been Hattori, because Ai had been particularly quiet that night, conspicuously melancholic and taciturn even by her own standard.

"How come you know so much about Tenoh?" he asks Carrara.

"I was a fan of hers," Carrara grudgingly admits. "I would have liked to come to the opera tonight, but it was impossible for me to get any tickets because they were all sold out when I came. It's even worse with the new production of _The Phantom of the Opera_ this weekend. Whenever Signor Seiya Kou appears on stage, you could camp in front of the house a night in advance and still don't get a ticket. The women are all completely besotted with him."

The image of Suzuki Sonoko and Ran pitching camp in front of the main entrance of La Fenice immediately springs to mind, and Shinichi shakes his head at the absurdity of it.

"I think I'm done here," he informs Carrara after taking several photos of the few objects which are of interest to him: Tenoh's initials, the note he found in the Sherlock Holmes novels, and the oil painting. "I'd like to have a glass of water before we interview the witnesses, though. Can I have a look at the backstage café at the end of the corridor?"

The backstage café — as Shinichi overheard from the officers while he was waiting with Gentile in the corridor — is a converted dressing room with a small bar where the musicians can have a drink during breaks without leaving the backstage area.

"A good idea. Signora Tenoh seemed to have taken the china cup from there."

x.

No sooner did they step out into the corridor than an officer approaches Carrara with the list of people who have access to the backstage area and have talked with Tenoh Haruka in the course of the evening. Luigi Gentile, who has been a nervous wreck throughout the whole affair, has gone home to fret about the disaster that appeared so early in his career after giving his witness account.

"Signor Gentile seems to be of a fragile disposition," Carrara remarks, and Shinichi silently agrees with him. Apart from the fact that Gentile went to Tenoh's room to look for "him" and found Tenoh dead on the carpet, he "didn't have anything to do with the matter," as he repeated over and over again. Despite knowing that Tenoh was female, Gentile seems to be the type that desperately tries to keep up appearances.

He spent the second interval innocently drinking champagne at the bar, visible for anybody to see, Gentile wailed. Afterwards, about fifteen minutes before the scheduled time of the third act, he went to the backstage café to chat with Signora Makoto Kino, one of Signora Hino's close friends who often waited for her during the performances. Signora Kino was on the phone with a Japanese friend and ignored him most of the time so that he left the backstage area again. In the foyer, a few minutes before the third act, he met Signor Mamoru Chiba, who was talking on the phone as well. The invention of mobile phones only made human communication more difficult than it already was, Gentile complained, as nobody had time for a nice little chat face-to-face anymore. A pleasant surprise came in the form of Signor Seiya Kou's charming secretary, who spent a moment in the foyer to talk to him about the weather before she complained about her headaches, whereupon he walked her back to Signor Kou's dressing room at the end of the corridor where she could rest on the sofa.

Leaving Signor Kou's dressing room, he looked at his watch and noticed that it was about time for the third act, so he proceeded to "Signor" Tenoh, who had a tendency to forget time whenever "he" was absorbed in a new novel, to remind "him" to appear on stage.

However, when he knocked at the door of "Signor" Tenoh's dressing room, "Signor" Tenoh only told him very brusquely that "he" was still busy and would appear in fifteen minutes. It was not unusual for Tenoh to delay the last part of a concert after a break for fifteen minutes to half an hour whenever "he" felt like it, which was actually the reason why they got rid of the gong announcing the end of an interval. From past experience, Gentile knew that musical geniuses always had their quirks one simply had to accept. So he obligingly climbed the stairs to Hino's dressing room to inform her that "Signor" Tenoh needed more time and that he would fetch her when "Signor" Tenoh was ready. She only shrugged and continued to study her scores. Signora Hino was known to be a very serious musician.

When he returned fifteen minutes later, "Signor" Tenoh told him to wait for another fifteen minutes, which, though it irritated him, was just like Tenoh so he simply followed "his" order and returned to the bar to down another drink (and to fret about the fact that nobody was interested in him, Shinichi mentally adds). At half-past eight he came back and found Tenoh lying on the floor. Tenoh still looked alive so he didn't get the idea to feel for "his" pulse. But it was already so late for the concert that he got into a panic. He rushed into the hall to ask for Signor Chiba's help and went with Signor Chiba to Signora Hino's dressing room, where the three of them hurriedly decided to go on stage at once so that they could kill two birds with one stone by continuing the concert and getting a doctor.

"And I almost forgot to add that I met Signor Seiya Kou at the bar before I went to Signor Tenoh for the second time. He had been away for the whole second interval and just came back through the main entrance," Gentile said with a tiny gleam of malice in his eyes.

"He was here tonight in the backstage area?" Carrara asked in surprise.

"Wednesday night and Thursday night, he came with his secretary and barricaded himself with her in the dressing room at the end of the corridor to practise his make-up for _The Phantom of the Opera_... Tonight they came through the exit, too, but Signor Kou didn't stay long because Signor Tenoh and he had a huge quarrel. They often quarrelled in the last weeks. This time it was even worse than usual because Signor Kou stormed out of the house after the first act and returned after the second interval to ask me where his secretary was. Afterwards he seemed to have been walking around in the backstage area. If you want to know more about Signor Tenoh's death tonight, it might be better to ask him than me."

The poor man is green with envy, Shinichi remembers thinking. But now that he is replaying the scene in his mind, he wonders if it was rather romantic jealousy which he has seen in his eyes. The talk between the blonde woman and the usher he overheard in front of the hall immediately came to mind, making him wonder whether Gentile's behaviour had something to do with his unrequited attraction to Seiya Kou's secretary.

"Signor Seiya Kou is a singer, isn't he? Why would a singer need a secretary to follow him around?" Carrara has asked, rubbing salt into Gentile's wound.

"He is disorganized and hot-headed and likes to take things easy," Gentile said indignantly. "If anybody needs a secretary to take care of his schedule and his papers and his way of life, it would be him."

"Why did you call the opera tonight a concert?" Shinichi asked.

"But it was a concert, wasn't it? A collection of songs for soprano with piano accompaniment... Have you ever watched an opera for one singer and piano? The title is certainly confusing. I don't know what Signor Tenoh wanted to say with it."

x.

After downing a glass of water and three capsules of APAH — the painkillers for the severe migraine from which Shinichi has been suffering ever since he took the permanent antidote — Carrara and Shinichi leave the inconspicuous backstage café and proceed to the exit by turning right at the end of the corridor.

"There is a button under the counter which releases the turnstile blocking the exit," Carrara tells Shinichi. "That's why I'd like to have a talk with the portiere." He doesn't need to say more because the rest is self-explanatory. The backstage area and the corridor leading to the dressing rooms can be accessed either by passing the concert hall and climbing on the stage — in which case one has to pass one of the ushers outside the hall — or by coming through the exit — in which case one has to pass the portiere.

Guido Moretti, the portiere, is a intellectual-looking young man with ash-blonde hair and a pair of passive blue eyes behind square, black-rimmed glasses.

"So Haruka Tenoh is really dead?" he asks curiously, not without a sign of sorrow, although it is the kind of anonymous sympathy you feel for something beautiful or impressive that had to disappear, not for a person you have known and liked.

"He died before the third act," Carrara says gravely, without giving Tenoh's real gender away.

"Almost as if words could kill," Moretti grimaces playfully. "I bet he will regret that he had told him to go to hell the last time they met."

"Who are you talking about?" Carrara asks.

"Seiya Kou," Moretti points at the large poster of _The Phantom of the Opera_ on the wall, smiling. "The new 'Phantom'. He and Tenoh had quite a row tonight just before the first act."

"What was it about?"

"I think it was about Seiya's secretary, but I don't understand Japanese and only heard it from a friend of mine. Tenoh said something like it was time to make it public, and mentioned a letter to Seiya's agent, and Seiya said that it was none of Tenoh's business and that he should go to hell for messing with other people's private lives."

"Private life? Interesting choice of word when it comes to a secretary," Carrara grins.

"I thought so, too," Moretti grins back. "She is extremely easy on the eye, and he can barely keep his hands off her even in public ... But it's not my business to stick my nose into other people's love affairs, and I don't want to get into trouble for spreading rumours, you know."

"I see his secretary has been in the backstage area, too," Carrara says after a glance at the sheet of paper in his hand. "Do they often visit the opera together?"

"No, they seldom watch an opera together; and most people don't know her here because they usually go to his dressing room straight away after they arrive... They are literally joined at the hips, if you know what I mean. My friend even says that they are cohabiting. I myself have seen them together on his boat, in various cafés and in the cinema for many times. She seems to be a good friend of Tenoh, too. They talk with each other whenever they meet, and Seiya doesn't seem to be pleased with it. A secretary... Don't make me laugh." Moretti snickers into his fist.

"Your friend is Japanese?" Shinichi asks.

"Half Japanese, half Russian," Moretti answers, eying Shinichi with intellectual curiosity. "She speaks both languages fluently." Blushing, he adds nervously: "I hope I didn't cause trouble for Seiya by telling you about the row he had with Tenoh. They were usually pretty civil to each other. It's just that their personalities clashed because they were so alike."

"And the name of your friend is?" Carrara asks, fishing a pen out of his pocket.

"Nadia... Nadia Gorowitz," Moretti stammers. "She works here part-time as an usher, though tonight she was free and only came here for the concert. If you want to ask her about the quarrel, please don't tell her that I mentioned it to you. She is so in love with Seiya that she would hate me forever if she found out that I couldn't keep my mouth shut."

Further questioning reveals that Kou Seiya and his beautiful secretary have come with Hino Rei and Chiba Mamoru in Kou's motorboat, which they often use to drive to La Fenice. Instead of listening to the concert, Kou and his secretary spent the first act in Kou's dressing room, which is located at the end of the corridor directly next to the small backstage café, where Hino likes to have her refreshments during the breaks. The row between Tenoh and Kou, though short and in hushed voices, took place before the concert directly in front of the same "café," which is visible to the portiere and his friend — who also happens to be his ex-girlfriend — Nadia Gorowitz.

Nobody came through the exit during the concert except for "Seiya" (Moretti says Kou Seiya is called "Seiya" by everybody with the exception of Luigi Gentile), who had left the opera house in a hurry after the first act and seemed to have returned through the main entrance during the second — as he didn't come back through the exit — just to go out again in the second interval. Moretti couldn't remember the exact time he released the turnstile for him. But he came back at the end of the second interval before the third act started.

"Signor Seiya Kou doesn't seem to enjoy the same popularity with men as with women," Carrara remarks with a grin on their way back to the corridor which connects the backstage café, Kou's and Tenoh's dressing room.

"It's natural, isn't it," Shinichi shrugs, thinking that attractive men have never been popular among their own sex, "although I'm more interested in his secretary after what I've heard. He had quite a reputation during his days as a teen idol... She seems to have tamed him."

"Well, you're going to see her soon, though I'd like to question Signora Makoto Kino first. She is the one who brought Signora Tenoh the cup of water. Afterwards I'd like to talk to Signora Rei Hino and Signor Mamoru Chiba who worked with Signora Tenoh before she died before we proceed to Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Shiho Miyano."

The sound of her name seems to cut through the noise of the final curtain calls from the hall, leaving an echo of it in his mind, and Shinichi feels his head spinning at the startling revelation.

"Is everything alright?" Carrara asks, grabbing his arm.

"Can you please repeat that, Seiya Kou and who?"

"Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Shiho Miyano, the secretary you are so curious about... They are waiting for us in his dressing room at the moment. Since they seem to enjoy each other's company so much, we can let them wait until we're done here."

x.


	8. Part One: What are the odds that

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story. :)**

x.

FS

x.

x.** ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**8. What are the odds that...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday night, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

What are the odds that a woman with Miyano Shiho's face appears in the same opera house during the same evening as another woman with Miyano Shiho's name? And what are the odds that there is another woman in the world who has both Ai's name and her looks? There is no reason why anybody should want to impersonate Miyano Shiho either, especially now that the Black Organization no longer exists. No matter how he looks at it, the reddish-blonde woman who caught his eye in the hall must have been_ her_.

Past the initial state of stupefied amazement, Shinichi feels a wave of tremendous relief wash over him. She is alive... And coincidence or fate, or whatever you want to call it, has once again brought her back to him. Right now she is sitting in the dressing room at the end of the corridor, waiting for him, and there is only a small wooden door keeping them apart...

For a fleeting moment, Shinichi considers pushing open — or kicking open or knocking down — that blasted door and pull her into his arms, Carrara and Seiya be damned.

Yet his joy is short-lived, for only a few seconds after the first feeling of exhilaration swept through him, he is already seething with rage. While every day of his life was filled with guilt and sorrow and despair about her disappearance and her supposed death, she was here in Venice, alive and kicking, without bothering to give him or at least the Professor a call. Hattori's death must have seemed to her like the ideal chance to disappear from their lives although she certainly couldn't have foreseen it. The evil-eyed wretch must have planned her escape long before that and hidden an extra pill of the antidote from him, throwing almost four years of close cooperation and companionship away for... Well, for what? Certainly not for organizing the schedule of Kou Seiya! She is not the type to waste her time and energy over a celebrity crush, and it's even less convincing to Shinichi that she might be in a more intimate relationship with the one-time teen idol than a personal secretary would be. Seiya's love life has always been a favoured subject of idle gossips. This wouldn't be the first or the last time that someone — one of his countless ex-girlfriends or their betrayed ex-boyfriends? — spreads a scurrilous wild rumour about him.

Just like his state of euphoria, Shinichi's anger soon evaporates. It is absurd to assume that she abandoned the Professor and the Detective Boys just to go abroad and work as a secretary, especially since she could have left with a simple "goodbye and let's keep in touch" if that was really what she wanted to do with her life. In addition, she must have been deeply affected by Hattori's death and felt the urge to investigate the happenings of that night three years ago. Ai must have had a valid reason for her disappearance, and perhaps she did write and the scatterbrained Professor accidentally threw the unopened letter with the advertisements away. It wouldn't be the first time such a thing happens.

Studying the picture of Kou Seiya he saw in the foyer again in his mind, Shinichi reassures himself that the singer looks quite the opposite of what he thinks is Ai's type. Gin, whom she apparently had an affair with before he ended it by shooting her sister, was tall and angular, a dangerous predator with hollow cheeks and piercing eyes. And even though Ran has told Shinichi that Kou Seiya looks different in the video clips she has seen, photos — like mirrors — usually don't lie too much unless you tamper with them. A male version of Tenoh Haruka with an overlong ponytail and silver earrings might be considered excessively attractive in a world where androgynous beauty is the latest fashion. But Shinichi can imagine Ai's gaze trailing languidly from Kou's long, curvy eyelashes to his high cheekbones, resting for a moment on his tousled short hair and his moon-shaped silver earring before she yawns in boredom, dismissing the owner of such a head as a wimp and a sissy at first glance. Romantic feelings — if she is still capable of any after the disaster with Gin! —usually don't develop after such a first impression.

However, the picturesque scene of Gin's carefully groomed long blonde hair flying in the wind suddenly flashes across Shinichi's mind; and the Ai in his imagination begins to smile as she discovers in the nape of Seiya's neck his lush and silky ponytail, which cascades down to his back in a large wave, ending in a loose and quite charming natural curl...

After trading darkness for light, she might have traded toughness for beauty as well. And now that Shinichi is thinking about it, he realizes she might have always had a weakness for flamboyant long-haired men...

"Is everything alright with you?" Carrara asks, tightening his grip around Shinichi's arm. Judging from the look on Carrara's face, Shinichi deduces that Carrara has not asked him that question for the first time.

"I was startled to hear her name, that's all... If Shiho Miyano is the person I think she is, she is an acquaintance of mine. I didn't expect to find her here in Venice."

"What a coincidence. But you looked as if you were about to faint... Was she once your 'secretary,' too?"

Shinichi feels himself blushing at the implication.

"No, she was just a classmate. We lost touch with each other after finishing school."

"So how was she like? Irresistible, I suppose, considering that somebody like Signor Seiya Kou 'can't take his hands off her even in public?'"

Fairly attractive, Shinichi answers. Not charming at all though very good-looking, beautiful, one could say...

"I suppose she broke quite a number of hearts?"

"A few, but not as many as she could have. She is smart and witty but sarcastic and unpredictable and extremely difficult to get along with... I've never understood how the boys could have fallen in love with a girl like her."

"Well, there's no accounting for taste," Carrara remarks. "She sounds exciting, and Signor Seiya Kou seems to be the type of man that enjoys a challenge. I heard from a colleague that he has been chased by love-struck women ever since he came here. His crazy female admirers even robbed him of his luggage once and we had great difficulty getting it back. The police suggested that he get a bodyguard, but he didn't want one."

"When did he come to Venice?"

"About four years ago, I think, although I heard he also travels a lot and leaves Venice on a regular basis for other cities, which is normal for a singer and actor. It's generally assumed that he is lodging in a hotel, presumably the Danielli or the Gritty, whenever he is here. But if he is really cohabiting with Signora Miyano, he probably has an apartment here which he somehow managed to hide from the public."

"It's highly unlikely, considering how popular he is. It's hard to hide such a thing in a city like Venice."

"You mean Signora Gorowitz only made it up? Maybe... But my colleague said that he thought Signor Seiya Kou behaved like somebody who tried to stay inconspicuous even though that wasn't really possible with all the girls tailing him. He also said Signor Seiya Kou seemed less flashy than the impression one gets of him after hearing about his scandals. Now that I know about his secretary, his behaviour begins to make sense to me. It sounds quite romantic, isn't it? A star holidaying in Venice, hiding from the fans and the media to have some private time with his first serious lo—"

"Holidaying? Isn't he employed at La Fenice?" Shinichi asks, wondering why there is a photo of Seiya in the foyer if he doesn't even sing here regularly.

"Yes, but of course not permanently. There is no such thing for a solo singer like him, and I doubt he would have accepted such an offer. He appears only in one production every year, which is always such a great success that they practically begged him on their knees to return. I'm looking forward to meeting the man since I've never managed to get a ticket to hear him. He is very famous for his beautiful voice, you know, which is probably why he is cast as the Phantom this season although he is still much too young for the role."

Judging from the change in background noise, the final curtain calls have just ended. From the hall, the applause has made way for a constant rustle, murmur and chatter as people are rushing out into the foyer. Hino Rei and Chiba Mamoru have left the stage and are now walking down the corridor towards them, both looking dejected and tired.

"Haruka is dead, isn't she?" Hino asks in Italian, with a speaking voice which is slightly husky and much deeper than Shinichi has expected after hearing the high notes she hit without any detectable difficulty when she was on stage.

"Sadly, yes," Carrara says. "I'm very sorry to—"

"Are you the commissario in charge of the investigation?" Hino cuts him short. Her slightly slanted eyes are an interesting shade of deep violet and heavily defined by a black eyeliner, Shinichi observes. The eyeliner has smudged a bit, which — added to her redden eyes — gives off the impression that she has just been crying.

Noticing that he is watching her, Hino shoots Shinichi an irritated look which immediately turns into something different. A strange mixture between surprise, disbelief, dislike and... recognition? Most probably, she has seen his face on the Japanese news, and the only reason she didn't immediately identify him as the-detective-who-brought-down-the-Black-Organizat ion was because she was too preoccupied with Tenoh Haruka's death which she, unlike Gentile, seemed to have immediately guessed.

Unfazed by her brusqueness, Carrara introduces himself to Chiba and her and shows them his badge. He would like to ask them a few routine questions regarding the happenings of tonight, he begins with a smile, before—

"I'm going to my dressing room now to get out of this dress and these shoes. You can knock in a few minutes if you really want to interrogate me," Hino interjects and — without waiting for an answer — turns and climbs the narrow staircase to her dressing room, the hem of her long mauve silk dress trailing on the floor after her.

"You can ask me questions in the meantime," Chiba Mamoru suggests in flawless English while acknowledging Shinichi's presence with a civil nod indicating that he remembers their encounter at the entrance of the concert hall. Even though he has lost his polished look to his exhaustion, Chiba still possesses an air of superiority due to his impressive height, his sleek, short black hair, his regular, handsome features and his staggeringly blue eyes. His voice, deep and warm, has an oddly calming effect on Shinichi.

It never occurred to him that an amateur musician could replace "Signor Tenoh" during the third act of an opera during its world premiere, Carrara says appreciatively. Based on what he could hear behind the stage, the performance wasn't so bad either.

"It went fairly well, but it was, of course, not unprepared," Chiba admits. "I told Haruka once in passing that I'd like to give a concert after finishing my studies before I give up music and focus on my line of work. She must have remembered it because, after finishing the opera, she insisted that I study the piano part so well that I could perform it as her stand-in during her concert in Rome next week. She even studied it with me and forced me to carry the scores around so that we could always work with each other whenever possible. Since she often returns to her house in Japan, I received free lessons there on weekends for over three months..." He smiles at the remembrance. "She was an extremely generous woman, who lived her life in a very independent and rather magnificent way."

She certainly was an impressive person, one of the giants of motor sports and music. But isn't it unusual for a pianist to have a substitute, Carrara asks in surprise. It's not like they are opera singers who usually have an understudy.

No, it's rather unusual, Chiba agrees. However, Haruka was anything but conventional and had a very strong personality. "Mr. Gentile," for example, never dared to say anything in her presence for fear of opposing her. To be fair, nobody ever wanted to oppose her. Everybody automatically followed her orders because she managed to be charming, authoritative and convincing at the same time.

"Nobody opposed her? What about Signor Seiya Kou who is said to have quarreled with her a lot?"

Seiya is the only exception to the rule, Chiba admits. But Seiya has always been rather bohemian himself, just like Haruka. And "quarrel" isn't the right word for the small disagreements they always had.

"What kind of relationship did they have?"

A bit more than acquaintances, a bit less than friends... They were colleagues who had the greatest respect for each other but didn't share the same view on many different things...

"But what about their personal relationship? I heard they didn't like each other very much."

Chiba throws Carrara a slightly irritated look.

"They didn't understand each other, but Seiya is actually one of the few people Haruka admired," he answers, carefully steering the conversation away from the topic of their personal relationship. "She once told me the first time she saw him she knew immediately that he would always have the world at his feet. He radiated genuine star quality, she said."

Taking down Chiba Mamoru's particulars, Carrara and Shinichi learn that Chiba is thirty years old, has just finished his medical studies and is currently living in Tokyo, Azabu Juuban, with his wife, who would have liked to come with him to Venice but had to stay in Tokyo because she had to look after their cat until a friend has time to take care of it for them. They are going to meet up on Monday to have a trip in Italy together during which he will also perform as Haruka's stand-in in Rome and Florence before he begins his career as a surgeon and the stressful time for them starts. She was actually the one he was talking with on the phone during the second interval when "Mr. Gentile" unsuccessfully tried to engage him in conversation. He met Haruka through his wife as well, who has a closely knit circle of friends in which Rei, Makoto, Seiya and Haruka belong.

"Didn't you feel Signora Tenoh's pulse when you saw her lying on the floor?" Carrara asks, giving up on using the male title of address for Tenoh. "Why did Signor Gentile have to search for a doctor if you are one?"

"To be honest, I knew that she was dead although she certainly didn't look like that," Chiba answers calmly. "I inspected her and checked her pulse while Mr. Gentile wasn't looking. It wasn't difficult because he is a very nervous and inattentive person unlike Rei, who immediately guessed everything. I'm impressed that she still managed to sing the third act as if nothing had happened. She has nerves of steel, in contrast to him."

And why did he try to hide the fact that Signora Tenoh was dead instead of telling Signor Gentile to call the police immediately, Carrara asks Chiba with a frown.

Because of the opera, Chiba answers, looking directly into Carrara's eyes without showing a trace of nervousness or irritation. Mr. Gentile is high-strung and neurotic, a fact which everybody knows just by looking at him, as the poor devil always wears gloves for fear of germs. If Chiba had told him about Haruka's death, Mr. Gentile wouldn't have had the nerve to go on stage and make the announcement that Haruka wouldn't appear for the third act. And breaking up the opera in the middle of its world premiere in a house like the Teatro La Fenice is out of the question, Chiba solemnly says. As her stand-in, he owes it to Haruka that her opera continues until the end, with or without her.

"As a doctor, I can tell you that Haruka died naturally," Chiba continues. "I didn't detect anything about her which suggested that she had been poisoned although one could get that idea after seeing the cup on the carpet. She had a peaceful expression on her face, and her dressing room looked tidy and undisturbed to me."

He didn't talk to Haruka during the evening because he thought she needed time for herself to focus on her performance, Chiba tells them. After arriving in Seiya's motorboat with Rei, Seiya and his secretary Shiho — Makoto actually came alone because she wanted to surprise Haruka and Rei with fresh flowers — he immediately went through the backstage area and the concert hall to the foyer after wishing Rei and Haruka the usual "break a leg." After a while, Makoto came with two large bouquets of lilies and brought them to Rei and Haruka before she joined him in the foyer until the opera began.

"Seiya Kou and Shiho Miyano... Did they both have tickets for the opera?" Shinichi asks.

Yes, they did, as Haruka gave them free tickets.

"But I heard they were in Signor Kou's dressing room during the first act," Carrara remarks.

"Makoto told me during the first break that Shiho had been suffering from her headaches, which was the reason why she didn't attend the first act and why Seiya, who didn't want to leave her alone, stayed with her. She attended the second act, though. But then her migraine seemed to have come back because she returned to Seiya's dressing room directly afterwards."

"But Signor Seiya Kou was not in the hall during the second act," Carrara remarks. "Two people told us he went out after the first act. Do you know why he went out?"

For a moment, Chiba seems lost for words. Then he looks thoughtfully into the distance and sighs.

"I don't know. Seiya has always been impulsive, acting on his immediate feelings. He is like a child with his boundless energy. Perhaps he just went out to get Shiho some painkillers."

Unlike Gentile, Chiba can't say anything regarding the whereabouts of either Hino, Kino or Kou during the second interval. He had been standing in front of the main entrance of La Fenice, "talking" on the phone — meaning he used the internet on his 3G smartphone to voice-chat — with his wife, whom he gave his undivided attention. When he noticed that other people were returning to the hall, he strolled back as well and stayed near the entrance to the concert hall where he continued to chat with his wife, who had been telling him a few quite amusing stories so that he completely lost track of time. He didn't bother to look at his watch because he knew the ushers would call the audience in and close the doors to the hall a few minutes before the third act started. And, knowing "Haruka," he knew very well that the third act wouldn't start on time. It wasn't until his wife told him she had to go to bed (because it was already half past three a.m. in Tokyo due to the seven hours time difference) that Chiba finally realized that it was already thirty minutes past the scheduled time of the third act, time for Haruka to appear on stage. So he returned to his seat where he stayed until Mr. Gentile appeared and dragged him to Haruka's dressing room.

"Signora Tenoh must have died between a quarter past eight and half past eight," Carrara says. "You were probably standing in front of the hall at that time. Can you remember seeing anybody who has access to the backstage area in the foyer? If Signora Tenoh's death tonight turns out to be a murder, which I really hope not, you might be their only alibi."

"I remember Mr. Gentile trying to talk with me, but I don't remember when. It must have been before a quarter past eight. Some time afterwards he was chatting with Shiho, Seiya's secretary. I think he has a crush on her. A few minutes afterwards I saw Seiya talking to an usher and then to Mr. Gentile at the bar. Rei was probably studying her scores after drinking a cup of tea. She always performs it as a kind of ritual. And Makoto was probably in the backstage café because she was still there when we discovered Haruka on the floor. Haruka's death was a great shock to her. But since she owed it to Haruka to watch the third act of the opera, she returned to the hall with us when we returned to the stage."

Makoto, one of Rei's and his wife's best friends, was Haruka's greatest fan, Chiba explains. She had one of the seats near the stage between his and Seiya's. Right now she is probably in the ladies' room to weep about Haruka's death in private. While she is a very affectionate and sensitive woman, she is also very proud. He hopes that she won't be questioned for too long because he fears a breakdown.

"I heard from one of my officers that she was the one who brought Signora Tenoh the cup of water, according to the portiere who saw her walk in the direction of Signora Tenoh's dressing room with the cup in her hand," Carrara remarks. "Does she always bring Signora Tenoh water in the intervals?"

Chiba frowns.

"No. Haruka once told me she usually didn't perform very often at La Fenice although she sometimes gave a concert now and then. Moreover, Makoto might have been her fan but was never so close to her that she would always come with her to the backstage area. Tonight Makoto was actually only in the backstage café because of Rei. It was probably the first time that Makoto brought Haruka the cup of water... Perhaps Haruka herself asked her for it? Although I wasn't there, I can imagine that was what actually happened because I've known both of them for a while."

"We heard that Signor Seiya Kou had a row with Signor Tenoh tonight," Carrara says, changing the topic.

Chiba sighs.

"I don't know anything about that, but I can tell you one thing for sure: Whatever they had been disagreeing about wasn't the cause of Haruka's death. I know the first thing the police will suspect when somebody like Haruka suddenly dies during the interval of a concert is that she must have been murdered. But this is ridiculous. First, I don't know what she could have died of... And second: Rei, Makoto, Seiya and I are all more interested in Haruka staying alive than seeing her dead. Both Rei and Makoto looked up to Haruka; Haruka supported Rei's career; I wasn't very close to Haruka but I admired her genius; and Seiya... well, he admired her musical skills as well and was simply too uninterested in her personally to want her death. Moreover, he is not the type to harbour a secret grudge against anybody. Even Shiho, whom I've only met for a few times, seems to respect Haruka. Or do you suspect Mr. Gentile, who didn't even dare to look Haruka into the eye, or the absent-minded portiere who always reads his romance novels under the counter when he thinks nobody is looking? He didn't have anything against Haruka either, judging from what I've seen. And if he was the one who told you about Haruka's and Seiya's fight tonight, I wouldn't pay too much attention to his words if I were you. Rei told me he is in love with one of Seiya's obsessive fans who left him to pursue Seiya. He also seems to have an overactive imagination, judging from his choice of reading material."

"Oh, I didn't suspect anybody. I was only curious," Carrara quickly changes his approach. "I'm actually a great fan of Signor Seiya Kou myself. And since I heard they were quarreling about his beautiful secretary, I was intrigued by the love story behind it. Signor Seiya Kou has the reputation of being quite a heartbreaker who doesn't let anybody tie him down, and I was interested in the woman who fascinates him so much that he lets her live with him."

"I don't know about any love story," Chiba says, his frown deepening. Surprisingly, Carrara's new approach ruffles his feathers even more than the old one. "Seiya is a famous celebrity who attracts more attention than he wants, and journalists seem to have set themselves the task of labeling any pretty woman he talks to for longer than a few seconds his lover. You can't imagine how many problems it caused for him and the girls he befriended, especially when those girls were already in a relationship with someone else."

"So he has befriended a lot of women?"

No, on the contrary, Chiba protests. Actually, none at all if one sticks to the facts. It's just the usual rumours about Seiya which already started when he was a teen idol. But contrary to the rumours, Seiya was rather innocent, more interested in music, sports and childish pranks and not so much in women.

"Signora Shiho Miyano and he seem to spend a lot of time with each other, though."

Oh, yes, that's true, Chiba says, looking strangely relieved. Seiya likes her very much because she is witty and intelligent, and they often go out with each other in their free time.

"Is it true that they are living together?"

Yes, but Seiya says it's because she is good company and he hates to be alone in his apartment.

"And you are trying to tell me that she is really only his secretary?" Carrara raises his brow at Chiba.

"Well, I don't know anything about them. But I don't know why he should live with her and try to hide their relationship at the same time if they were a couple. He usually does whatever he wants to without caring much about appearances. They link arms when they go out together, which is probably not unusual between good friends in Italy but gives a misleading impression of their relationship. They are both very beautiful people who capture the public imagination, and he likes to flirt with her a bit, which only makes matters worse. But since Seiya insists that she is only his secretary, their relationship probably stops there. He is the frank type who usually doesn't lie."

"She is an acquaintance of mine," Shinichi remarks casually. "I would never have expected her to work as his secretary. Do you know where and how they met each other?"

"Seiya never talked to me about it," Chiba says, studying Shinichi with interest as if he, too, has just recognized Shinichi's face. "I only heard from Rei that Shiho began to work as Seiya's secretary when they came to Venice together about three, almost four years ago. But that's something you shouldn't ask me but him and Shiho."

In answer to Shinichi's question whether he knows about a very interesting edition of the Sherlock Holmes novels and a Sherlock Holmes painting in Tenoh's dressing room, Chiba replies that he has never entered Haruka's dressing room before her death and doesn't know that she liked Sherlock Holmes. The first time he saw the painting was tonight, and he neither had the time nor the nerve to look at it closely. His answer sounds truthful; and when Shinichi asks him for his contact address and phone number while handing him a notebook and a pen, Chiba writes down everything in a florid yet very readable handwriting, which does not in the least resemble any of the handwritings Shinichi has seen.

x.

"I wonder how much he told us about the things he knows," Carrara remarks after Chiba has left in search of Kino Makoto, who has yet to return from the ladies' room. "When it comes to his friends, he would lie without hesitation. He seems loyal and generous, the only man who is on Signor Seiya Kou's side... There is such a regal air about him, too, don't you think? If he were an actor, he would be cast as a prince or even a young king."

"I would cast him as a young version of King Arthur," Shinichi replies with a smile, "if Seiya Kou is cast as Lancelot."

"What do you want to imply with that?" Carrara asks, staring at Shinichi in surprise.

"But haven't you noticed it? Chiba revealed too much of himself because he is not accustomed to lying. One of the women whom Seiya Kou befriended and whom the journalists labeled as his lover was most probably Chiba's beloved wife."

x.


	9. Part One: First, before the talk

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story. :)**

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**9. First, before the talk...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday night, November 2nd 20xx_)

x.

First, before the talk turned to Seiya's love stories, Chiba unthinkingly included Seiya in his wife's "closely knit circle of friends," Shinichi explains to Carrara, who still has reservations about the rumours involving Chiba's wife. Second, Chiba remarked that the rumours caused trouble for Seiya and the girls he befriended but immediately contradicted himself by claiming that Seiya never befriended any girls when Carrara showed his interest in the matter. From Chiba's behaviour, Shinichi infers that Chiba didn't want to dwell on the topic because Chiba's girlfriend or fiancée had been labeled as Seiya's lover in the gossip columns at the time Seiya was a teen idol. It is also reasonable to assume that the same girl is now Chiba's wife and that the friendship between Seiya and her must have been very strong to last throughout the scandal and the fact that she is now married to Chiba and living in Tokyo while Seiya is either in Venice or traveling around.

But was it really only a close friendship which survived through all the ugly rumours? Despite his lack of interest in Seiya before hearing the singer's name attached to Ai's, Shinichi can recall so many lurid headlines he involuntarily picked up about Seiya's countless affairs to think that, at least in this case, the saying applies that where there's smoke there's fire. Furthermore, it is hard for Shinichi to believe that Seiya — despite his scandals and his unexplainable popularity — is supposed to be "rather innocent," with which Chiba meant that Seiya was blissfully oblivious to his disastrous influence on women.

"Of course she could also have been an ex-girlfriend of Chiba's who also belongs to that circle of friends and for whom he cared so much that he is still bitter about the break-up," Shinichi adds. "That's very unlikely, though. I'm sure it was his wife. It would explain his fear when he noticed that you were interested in the girls Seiya befriended, especially if Seiya didn't befriend any girls apart from her friends and her. Chiba is the protective type, and he seems to love his wife very much. He was afraid you might get the idea to dig out the old scandal."

"I wonder why you think he loves her very much," Carrara remarks. "Married couples often give each other a call out of habit. It doesn't say much about their real feelings for each other except that their marriage is fairly good."

"I think he loves her," Shinichi insists without going into detail. Triggered by Carrara's little remark, an insignificant little memory of the time before Pandora's Box has come flooding back to him, overwhelming him with the peculiar and sudden pang of regret he always feels whenever he remembers it, a curious sensation whose nature he cannot grasp and whose impact on him he — although he has often pondered over it — cannot explain.

x.

It was a beautiful starry night with a perfect crescent in the sky, looking so gorgeous, lifeless and artificial as if it belonged to the set of an old Hollywood movie, an impression which was strengthened by the presence of a camera and three stage lighting instruments on the lawn, the yellow candle lantern bags on the white-clothed tables and the colourful paper lanterns in the trees. Although it was late October, the air had not yet acquired its autumnal chill, and the breeze was still so gentle and warm that it almost drifted past one unnoticed. In the wings of the open air stage, the musicians had just begun to tune their instruments while Shiratori-sensei — the former Kobayashi-sensei — was bustling between the tables to distribute the sealed envelopes with the words and phrases which were to be acted out by the players. Shinichi — or rather Edogawa Conan — and Haibara Ai were standing slightly apart from the others, cooped up in the small space between the velvet curtain and the old wooden stairs leading to the stage, waiting.

"How did you deduce that the culprit still loved his wife and wanted to win her back after taking revenge on the man who stole her away from him?" she asked him with interest, referring to his latest culprit who had been taken to the police station in handcuffs half an hour ago. "Just because he spent a few minutes on the phone with her didn't mean that he still loved her. Married couples often give each other a call out of habit. Maybe he hates her, which would be more natural since she was unfaithful to him."

"He called her in the interval between two acts of a play to chat about completely irrelevant things although he could have spent the time talking with his colleagues who were present," he replied. "And he isn't the socially awkward type that pretends to be occupied to escape a conversation with other people. Hence I deduced that he either did it to get an alibi or just wanted to hear her voice. Since he didn't need an alibi for that time and because his colleagues would have provided him with a much better alibi than she could have done, it must have been the latter case. Also, I think he didn't blame her for her betrayal and didn't blame himself either, which is why his rival received all of his pent-up anger though, in my opinion, it takes two to tango."

"Or three, in this case," she yawned, leaning slightly against the red curtain next to her. "He is such a crashing bore. Two weeks in a marriage with him and I'd consider either murder or suicide. No woman should be forced to spend her life with a man like him."

"You think that because he is not your type," he smiled. "But he must have been her type once because nobody actually forced her to marry him. After noticing that she didn't love him anymore, she should have asked him for a divorce instead of hurting all of them by indulging in an affair."

"Maybe she felt guilty and couldn't bring herself to tell him that it was over," she suggested, her eyes fixing his inquiringly. "Would it be easy for you to tell the woman you've been with for years that you're in love with another and want to be free?"

"Yes," he replied without hesitation. "You either love somebody or you don't. If you do, you should do everything possible to make it work. If you don't and would rather be with another person instead, just cut the ties at once instead of making everyone's life miserable."

"Well, perhaps it should have been as simple as that," she sighed, absently toying with the white gold pendant around her neck, moving it to and fro along the chain. "But there are people who prefer keeping up the charade."

"It suits you," he said in an attempt to be amicable, indicating the small cage-shaped pendant whose intricate romantic pattern would go well with a Gothic Lolita dress, in his opinion. When he gave it to her and she asked him with mistrust why he bought her a cage, he had told her it was to remind her that she was free, whereupon she only raised her brow and told him that it was just like him to be so silly.

"Are you flattering me or flattering yourself?" she was smirking at him now, her finger tapping lightly at the pendant as if she were counting a beat. Much too long for a little girl like her, the chain went down to her breast so that the cage was now hanging like the sword of Damocles directly over the place where her heart was, dangling over it menacingly.

He only glared at her in response and then turned his attention to the tables on the lawn while she contemplated him with a faint smile, somehow managing to look resigned, amused and mocking at the same time.

"You simply grabbed it without really looking at it, right? Your last-minute birthday presents are always a tad too expensive and totally uncalled for. That's your guilty conscience, I suppose. Don't ever dare to give me something like this again. Just admit that you didn't have time to search for a present."

"Nobody forces you to wear it if you don't want to," he remarked. "It looks to me you're rather fond of it, though."

"I like it," she shrugged. "I only don't like the fact that I got it from you. Let me guess, you had gone to the jeweller's for a totally different reason. Were you searching for something to give your girlfriend at the detective agency?"

"Yes," he replied without going into detail. Actually, he had stumbled over the pendant first and decided to get it for Ai on her fake-birthday — a date she arbitrarily chose to appease the Detective Boys, who wanted to celebrate her birthday with her — before he got the idea to buy a ring for Ran as well. But he would rather not talk about this topic because, in his eagerness to prevent the robbery which occurred on the other side of the street just when the jeweller handed him the red box with the necklace in it, he had hastily thrown the money he was holding in his hand on the counter, pocketed his new purchase without waiting for the change and completely forgotten about the ring.

In the wings, the musicians had begun to play a sad little waltz; and he began to hum the tune, trying to remember whether he had heard it before.

"Please don't," she sighed. "You know your singing can kill, and I really don't want you to come across another corpse tonight, especially not when that corpse is mine."

"Thank you very much, I love you, too," he replied ironically, slightly hurt by the expression of genuine horror on her face. "I think I've already heard the melody they are playing somewhere. I just can't remember it."

"Charade," she said, accepting the envelope Shiratori-sensei just handed her with a well-faked childish smile, blushing coyly when Shiratori-sensei wished the two of them good luck.

"Your acting skills are getting even better with time. Maybe you should make a living from it," he suggested after Shiratori-sensei had gone.

"Charade," she repeated nonchalantly, the childish expression and the blush on her face completely wiped out as if it had never been there. "That's the name of the song. They chose it just because of the title, I think."

"It certainly seems so because it really doesn't fit the atmosphere here," he remarked, taking the envelope out of her hand. "Let's see what phrase we got, shall we?"

"I don't think she is happy about you acting out the words with me instead of her," she observed, indicating Ayumi-chan who was waiting with Mitsuhiko and Genta at a table for their envelope. "Why didn't you want the two of us to split up so that there is always one of us in the group that acts out the phrase and the other in the group that guesses the meaning? You even prevented her from joining our group."

"I don't want the three of them to rely on us forever," he replied. "If we had split up, this charade would have been a game between the two of us. This way, we two are actually playing with them for once instead of spoon-feeding them. Anyway, this will be a tougher nut to crack than I've expected." He frowned at the card, wondering whether it was Suzuki Sonoko instead of Shiratori-sensei who had come up with the phrase on it. "It shouldn't be too hard to act out 'star' and 'cross.' But how in the world, without inappropriate behaviour, are we going to act out the last word?"

She threw a glance over his shoulder, looking slightly taken aback by the English phrase before she gazed at him thoughtfully and shrugged, apparently not at all impressed by the difficulty of the task.

"Come on," she said with a hint of amusement in her eyes, "nothing is easier to act out than that."

x.

"Perhaps you're right, and he loves her," Carrara remarks. "But then it's rather interesting, isn't it? Signor Mamoru Chiba actually provided an alibi for his one-time rival when I told him that he might be the only alibi for the people with access to the backstage area tonight. He could have pretended that he didn't see Signor Seiya Kou at all because he was distracted. One could also have expected him to jump at the chance to fuel the rumours about Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Shiho Miyano in order to distract us from his wife. Instead, he handled the matter of their love affair with the same caution as that of his own marriage and tried to convince us that those two are only friends. In all aspects, he behaved like a real gentleman."

"He is a real gentleman. But why should he be so ridiculously discreet when it comes to the steady relationship of somebody whose public image is that of an infamous Casanova? Chiba did seem relieved when he noticed that you were only interested in Shiho Miyano, and maybe he actually told us the truth and she is only Seiya Kou's secretary," Shinichi counters, dismissing the possibility that Chiba has lied about their relationship out of hand. Apart from the fact that Chiba sounded honest when he told them about Ai, there is no reason for Chiba to lie about Seiya's and Ai's relationship after admitting that they often go out together and share an apartment. And as much as their odd friendship stupefies Shinichi, the alternative theory that Ai is really cohabiting with the notorious playboy while trying to hide their love affair seems even more absurd to him.

"Why would a singer share his apartment with his secretary and even spend so much of his free time with her?" Carrara shoots him an incredulous look. "Sitting with her in various cafés is one thing. Going to the cinema with her and even taking her with him to his dressing room is another. I don't think Signor Moretti made it up because it was backed up by Signor Gentile and even Signor Chiba as well. Living with her in the same apartment and going out with her while trying to hide her from the public... There is no reason why Signor Seiya Kou should do that if they aren't a couple, especially after having taken great pains to hide his apartment from his fans. He is simply risking too much for a secretary and 'good company.' Considering his reputation, anybody with a brain could have thought of the rumours which would fly around if anybody saw them entering an apartment together with their arms linked."

That, Shinichi ponders, might exactly be Seiya's intention. If Chiba and Carrara's colleague are right and Kou Seiya is not a flashy womanizer like the journalists' depiction of him, the singer might have used Ai to keep a safe distance between him and his fanatical fans. The only thing which surprises Shinichi is why Ai, who is anything but dense, would let the selfish idiot put herself into such a precarious position.

"In my opinion, he is so hopelessly in love with her that he doesn't care about the consequences," Carrara continues. "That would agree with his impulsive character. Anyway, we're going to see the pair soon. I only hope Signor Mamoru Chiba can convince Signora Makoto Kino to come to us on her own so that we don't have to visit the ladies' room or question Signora Hino first... Ah, there she is."

Kino Makoto, the woman Chiba has just brought to them, is a tall, curvy and quite handsome brunette with large forest-green eyes. While she is dressed up to the nines in her long green velvet dress with matching rose stone jewellery, her chestnut wavy hair — secured with a beautiful emerald hair tie in a high ponytail on top of her head — are in a state of slight disarray. Judging from her swollen eyes, it is obvious even to the unattentive observer that she must have been crying for quite a while.

"I'll go upstairs to see whether Rei is alright," Chiba excuses himself and swiftly departs again while Kino greets both Carrara and Shinichi with a solemn nod before she expresses the wish to talk to them in the backstage café.

"I really need a drink now," she explains in Italian, pointing at the café with her index finger like a child. Her voice is warm, resonant and strong in contrast to her vulnerable and slightly dreamy gaze.

She can't tell them much about the happenings of tonight, Kino declares after taking an opened bottle of sherry out of the fridge which she empties into three glasses, offering Carrara and Shinichi each a glass without considering the fact that Carrara is not allowed to accept the drink while he is on duty. Haruka — who was Kino's idea of how a human being should be — had given her, Mamoru, Seiya and Seiya's secretary Shiho free tickets for tonight's opera, she begins after tossing off her glass of sherry and asking them to keep everything she tells them confidential. She had come alone through the main entrance of La Fenice where she met Gentile, who escorted her to the backstage area to see Haruka and Rei. After giving Rei and Haruka each a bouquet of scarlet lilies and wishing them luck, she spent the time before the first act with Mamoru in the foyer while Haruka and Rei were busy preparing themselves for the concert.

"I heard Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Shiho Miyano didn't attend the first act of the opera despite having free tickets," Carrara remarks.

It is true that they didn't, which startled Kino so that she decided to visit Shiho and Seiya in Seiya's dressing room during the first interval. Seiya was nowhere to be seen. But Shiho told her she was suffering from a severe migraine and Seiya had gone out to get her painkillers.

"How come you knew that you would find them in his dressing room?" Carrara asks.

Kino blinks at him in surprise.

"Where else should they have been? Oh, you mean they could have stayed in the café. But Rei told me that Seiya got the key for his dressing room on Wednesday — because of _The Phantom of the Opera_ this weekend, you know — and that he immediately tried to make it cozy, even robbing Haruka of a sofa to put it in there. Luckily, Haruka didn't mind since she didn't need a sofa in her dressing room, anyway. I expected that he'd rather stay in his dressing room with Shiho than sitting in the café where everybody could show up without warning and disturb them. Just like Haruka, Seiya loves his privacy."

"So he was away during the first act and the first interval in search for painkillers. And what did you and your friends do then? I'm sorry for being intrusive, but these are just routine questions."

Haruka, Rei, Shiho, Mamoru and she were in the backstage café during the first interval before they went their separate ways, Kino proceeds with her story. She left with Mamoru for the bar where they drank champagne and talked about Usagi, Mamoru's wife, who is also one of her best friends. Rei returned to her dressing room to study her scores as she always did during an interval while Shiho and Haruka stayed in the café together. Those two were good friends — Shiho was actually one of the few people Haruka treated as an equal — and liked to talk with each other in private.

Shiho, whose headaches disappeared after the first interval, attended the second act of the opera. Seiya had still not returned, which was a pity because Rei was magnificent during the second act, probably even better than she was during the first. Seiya's absence must have infuriated her because he has been her celebrity crush since their high school days and she has wanted to make an impression on him with this opera. But, amazing as she is, she kept complete control over her voice and didn't show it. Whenever she goes on stage, Rei — who is usually hot-headed and impatient — transforms into a totally different person.

"You must know she has studied very hard for the role, which is extremely tough because the soprano has to sing the whole opera alone for the whole evening. There aren't many singers in the world who survive through such a trial without ruining their voices. I'm sure it hurt her very much that Seiya didn't listen to even one minute of it. I'm only telling you that because I don't want you to judge her by her behaviour tonight. Rei is a diamond in the rough. There is nobody more loyal than her in the world... But whenever she is angry or disappointed, her temper gets the better of her, and then she can be very nasty even towards us."

When Kino arrived in the backstage café in the second interval to have another cup of tea with Rei, she learned from Rei that Haruka had immediately retired to her dressing room after leaving the stage, saying that she was exhausted and wanted to be left alone. Some time after Rei left for her own dressing room, Kino was trying to reach a friend on the phone when Haruka came, asked Kino to bring her a cup of chilled water and — out of consideration for Kino who usually doesn't like to be disturbed during her phone calls — immediately returned to her dressing room again. Putting a bottle of water into the fridge, Kino noticed that there was already another bottle in it. Hence she postponed her call, grabbed the bottle in the fridge and a cup, walked to Haruka's dressing room and knocked at the door. Haruka stepped out of her room, accepted the cup from Kino, poured herself water into the cup, returned the half-empty bottle to Kino and — complaining of a headache — told Kino she wanted to be left alone again to prepare herself for the last act of the opera.

What happened to the half-empty bottle, Carrara asks, apparently annoyed about the fact that he hasn't heard anything about it from the officers.

"I drank the rest of the water and threw the empty bottle away," Kino shrugs.

Why did she bring Tenoh a cup instead of a glass, Shinichi asks. One usually doesn't drink water out of a china cup.

She didn't think much about it, Kino replies. She had simply grabbed a china cup because there was no clean glass left. Stealing a glance at the sink, Shinichi realizes that Kino must have done the dishes during her phone call.

"Did Tenoh always drink water in the intervals?"

"I think so," Kino blinks at him in genuine bemusement, apparently puzzled by his odd questions. "Why do you want to know it?"

"Only out of curiosity."

"Can you tell us what time it was?" Carrara asks.

Kino shakes her head.

"I didn't pay attention to it. I usually don't wear a watch and only look at my phone or set a timer when I really need to keep track of time. But you can ask Seiya if you like. I saw him heading for the exit when Haruka opened the door to the café and asked me for the water."

Turning his attention to the bar counter, Shinichi throws a glance at the old clock whose face is clearly visible for anybody standing at the bar or sitting at the only table of the café where the three of them are sitting now. Automatically comparing the time on it with the time on his own watch, he assures himself that it is keeping good time.

"So Signor Seiya Kou returned some time during the second act just to go out again in the second interval?" Carrara asks.

"Yes. I don't know why he did it. But it's just like him to do unexplainable and crazy things, so I didn't even think of asking him. Perhaps he went home to get Shiho stronger painkillers because her headaches had returned again."

"He seems to care about her very much," Carrara observes.

"Yes, he does," Kino responds seriously, looking suddenly distant.

"Where were the others during that time?" Shinichi asks.

Rei was in her dressing room, studying her scores as always while Shiho was in Seiya's dressing room to nap on the sofa. Mamoru had told Kino that he wanted to chat with Usagi and was probably in the foyer or in the concert hall. She herself had spent the whole time on the phone talking to her friend when Signor Gentile suddenly appeared and tried to start a conversation with her. Even though she didn't have anything against the man, he got on her nerves with his inability to keep his mouth shut, and she was glad when he finally left her alone. After a while, Seiya came and had a drink with her, asking her about Rei's singing and telling her how sorry he was for missing the first two acts of the opera before he returned to his dressing room.

"Please tell us what time it was," Shinichi urges. "You can check the time your call ended on your mobile phone."

"But Seiya came in the middle of my phone call. And since he knows Minako as well, we both talked with her on the phone over a glass of sherry. Minako didn't mind because she likes to flirt with him a bit, an old habit she has kept from our school days together. But now I remember it was about a quarter to twenty past eight because Seiya, who wanted to watch the third act of the opera, complained to me about Haruka's habit to let the audience wait for fifteen minutes to half and hour. We weren't really impatient, though, because we knew Rei would come and call us before the third act started."

"Did you look at the clock or did you only guess the time?" Shinichi asks.

"I looked at the clock, of course. It was one or two... or three... minutes past a quarter past eight, I think."

"You said you were talking to Minako. Did you mean Minako Aino, the actress?"

Kino nods with a smile. "She'll be the Meg Giri in _The Phantom of the Opera_ this weekend. Seiya will be the Phantom and Rei Christine Daaé. It's such an awesome cast. You should really watch the musical if you get the chance."

"I doubt I'll be able to get a ticket," Carrara sighs in resignation.

Kino gives him a sympathetic look.

"These crazy women," she snorts with annoyance. "Seiya's fans are driving all of us insane and he still hasn't learnt how to deal with them after all these years. Haruka, on the other hand, always knew exactly how to attract girls and how to get rid of them."

"Did you all go to Infinity together?" Shinichi asks her.

Kino stares at him as if he were a man from Mars.

"Oh God, no," she exclaims with a laugh. "Infinity was a school for prodigies, and an extremely exclusive one to boot. No, I went to a normal school with Usagi and Minako. Rei went to a Catholic school but spent all of her free time with us. I don't know where Mamoru went to school since he was already at university when Rei and he started dating and she introduced him to us. Only Haruka went to Infinity. She was a real genius."

"Signora Rei Hino and Signor Mamoru Chiba were once a couple?" Carrara asks in surprise.

Kino blushes.

"Yes, but their relationship was brief and not at all serious. Rei immediately broke up with him when she noticed that Usagi and he had fallen in love with each other. I told you she is the most loyal friend in the world." Kino smiles warmly. "Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think she really suffered when she gave up Mamoru for Usagi. Usagi has always been much more important to her than Mamoru ever was. Rei only had a small crush on him because he was so good-looking and mature in contrast to all of her admirers. It was kind of stupid of me to mention it to you."

"Did Seiya Kou go to Infinity, too?" Shinichi asks.

"No, he came to our school when he was already a teen idol. Seiya, Usagi, Minako and I were actually classmates. I can't imagine Seiya would have survived for even one semester at Infinity. He was bright but just as lazy as Minako when it came to studying and homework, and the girls at school were always throwing themselves at him. It's a miracle he still got so good grades."

In reply to Shinichi's questions regarding the Sherlock Holmes novels and the painting, Kino claims that she didn't know about Haruka's interest in Sherlock Holmes and has never seen any Sherlock Holmes painting in Haruka's dressing room because she has never been there. Although Haruka was genuinely friendly and extremely charming, she was not the type of person one dares to disturb without being invited. When Carrara remarks that "Signor Seiya Kou" has dared to rob Haruka of her sofa, according to Kino's own statement, Kino only sighs: "Well, you know, Seiya is Seiya," smiling indulgently as if she were talking about a lunatic or a child, and they leave it at that.

x.

Scribbling down her address and phone number into Shinichi's notebook in a round and rather feminine handwriting, Kino Makoto tells Carrara casually that she is twenty-five years old — a year younger than Haruka — and the proud owner of a small flower shop in San Marco where she also sells hand-made chocolate and cakes for special occasions. She had come to Venice right after finishing school, following her dream to make a living here. Haruka and Michiru, Haruka's life partner, visited her during an Italy trip and immediately fell in love with the city because its atmosphere matched Michiru's paintings. Michiru even founded a small private academy for music, dance and fine arts whose ballet classes are very popular. Minako soon moved to Venice as well, partly because she was interested in Michiru's academy and partly because she had managed to snatch a few important roles for the musicals at La Fenice.

"Last year it was even Belle in _Beauty and the Beast_, a main role," Kino says with motherly pride. "Rei joined us last year after finishing her musical studies although I don't know whether she came here because of Seiya or because of Minako and me."

"And Seiya Kou and Shiho Miyano?" Shinichi asks. "Did they come here together?"

About four years ago, Seiya came to Venice and bought the apartment from Michiru, Kino says. During a visit at her flowershop — Seiya is her best customer when it comes to thornless, long-stemmed red roses — he told Kino that he was thoroughly sick of the unwelcome publicity and wanted to hide somewhere where nobody would expect to find a social butterfly like him. When Kino and Aino visited his apartment for the first time, he introduced Shiho to them, bragging that he had finally found a brilliant solution against the dreaded paperwork, which was not doing it at all and letting his super-efficient secretary taking care of it for him.

"So Signor Seiya Kou is actually living in Signora Michiru Kaioh's apartment?" Carrara asks in surprise. He, too, obviously knows the family name of Tenoh Haruka's life partner even without Kino telling him. Anybody who knows Tenoh Haruka also knows Kaioh Michiru, who is famous in her own right, and Shinichi can remember marvelling at Kaioh's uncanny beauty which threw even him off balance when he first saw a photo of her and Tenoh in Ran's magazine.

"Well, no. Technically, he owns it since he bought it but, officially, it still belongs to her. He didn't even change the nameplates, you know, saying that it's a great way to hide from his fans. People who don't know them would think Seiya and Shiho were Haruka and Michiru, and Seiya is inordinately proud of his little prank. I'm only telling you this so you know what a kid he is and because you promised me that everything within these walls are strictly confidential."

"And Signora Haruka Tenoh and Signora Michiru Kaioh had to move into another apartment because of him?" Carrara asks.

"They had two apartments," Kino shrugs. "Seiya talked Michiru out of her apartment in Cannaregio because it's peaceful and residential, the perfect place to live a perfectly normal life."

Some day, all of her friends will be in Venice, Kino smiles, emptying her second glass of sherry — the one she poured for Carrara — in one go. For a woman who has drunk champagne and at least three glasses of sherry during the same evening, she is amazingly sober, Shinichi acknowledges with admiration while Kino declares that she will make sure to bribe everybody with cakes and flowers and, with the help of her friends, return the decaying city its old glory.

"I know it's improbable," she sighs with sad smile. "But one should never lose hope, Haruka once told me." Leaning back in her chair, she grins at Carrara and Shinichi with a mournful expression in her redden eyes. "I'm your number one suspect because I brought her the cup of water, aren't I? But I can assure you that Haruka wasn't murdered, neither by me nor by anyone else, because she was loved by everybody."

"Everybody?" Carrara echoes skeptically.

"Yes," Kino nods, moving her arms in a vague, all-encompassing motion which seems to embrace the whole backstage area. "She is... was... such a nice and inspirational person. We all admired and loved her very much."

"Signor Seiya Kou, too?" Carrara asks.

"We all love him very much, too," Kino replies, intentionally misunderstanding his question. "But it's something entirely different. He is too much of a star and a maverick. You can't help being dazzled by his looks and his voice, and all the girls are swooning over him. But somehow we never really talk." Then, as if she weren't satisfied with her explanation, she continues to elaborate: "Don't get me wrong. He is actually a great guy. I once had a celebrity crush on him, too. But he is almost always deliriously happy with himself as if he were high on a drug. Spending time with him is wonderful because whatever troubles you have seem to miraculously disappear in his presence as if they had never existed. However, it's impossible for me to talk to a guy like him about personal problems, and I do feel the need to talk about problems once in a while. Haruka was mature, intelligent and thoughtful. I could always turn to her for advice."

"I heard there have been personal problems between Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Haruka Tenoh because of Signora Shiho Miyano?" Carrara asks.

No, one can't call them "problems," Kino protests. Haruka, though sometimes brisk in manner, had a heart of gold. She was very protective of her friends, one of them was Seiya himself, just like Shiho. However, one of Haruka's few vices was her lack of respect when it came to other people's privacy, and Seiya is a free spirit who can't stand being ordered around.

"You mean Signor Tenoh told Signor Kou how to behave towards his girlfriend?" Carrara asks, confused.

She didn't mean to say that, Kino answers evasively, fidgeting with her empty glasses. Haruka liked to offer sound advice to her friends while Seiya, in contrast to the others, disregarded her well-meant advice all the time. It seemed Haruka also didn't like the fact that Seiya is sharing his apartment with Shiho, who is not only his secretary but also his friend, fueling the wild rumours about them having a secret love affair by shamelessly flirting with her in public. Nevertheless, Shiho was only one of the many topics on which Seiya and Haruka disagreed. They might have been polar opposites, but they weren't enemies.

"That's strange," Carrara remarks, "I heard that their personalities clashed because they were so alike?"

Oh, in some aspects, they were alike, Kino smiles. But it's true that those similarities only fueled their arguments. They were both individualists, liked to lead, liked to win, and "had the same taste, you know... the same hobbies, the same interests, even liked the same type of woman."

"So they were rivals? I remember the rumour that Signor Seiya Kou was once interested in Signora Michiru Kaioh, too, when they still went to school. I remember the press caused a lot of trouble for her."

Oh no, not Michiru. Kino vehemently protests. She heard they once flirted with each other a bit though it was only a prank to aggravate Haruka. Michiru always loved to make Haruka jealous to pay her back for her incessant flirting, and Seiya was the ideal tool to ruffle Haruka's feathers. The press somehow got wind of it and the little incident was blown out of all proportion. The one Seiya was in love with was actually someone else. Back then he was completely out of his mind for a few days, even broke down at the end of a concert, which was especially disturbing because it was so unlike him. She wonders if he has ever really got over h—

"And who was that girl?" Carrara asks curiously, cutting her off in the middle of her sentence, much to Shinichi's annoyance.

As if she just realized that she has talked too much about things she shouldn't, Kino clams up, flushing with anger.

"I don't know her," she answers with a nervous laugh. "I only heard about it from a friend. But it isn't important now, is it? I really don't want to gossip about Seiya, especially since rumours about him spread like wildfire. The only thing which matters is the fact that Haruka wasn't murdered, and Seiya would be the last person on earth to murder anybody. Those who want him to be a murderer are probably only envious of his success and his popularity."

"Why do you think that he would be the last person to murder anybody?" Shinichi asks.

"Because he loves life so much," Kino says as a matter-of-fact. "Why should he want to take it away from anybody?"

A fine woman, Shinichi thinks, not shrewd at all and much too easy to deceive but loyal and trustworthy. One can never count anybody out, but he would say that the last person who can murder someone else is her.

x.

**AN: **After rereading my favourite fics by my favourite authors, I feel compelled to explain that the part with the cage-shaped pendant in this chapter and the line "To remind you that you are free" (just like the Ariadne-Theseus reference later in the story) are NOT taken from Rae's (Astarael00's) awesome Ai-Conan drabbles. (Please go to his profile to find his drabbles since you're definitely going to enjoy them if you are an Ai-Conan fan.) The cage was already in the old version of Encounter, which was written during the same time as SN's (Ritzen's) "Galatea" years ago and was a homage to Holly Golightly from "Breakfast at Tiffany's," who was terrified of a cage because she never wanted to be in one. (Rae, SN and I sometimes have brain-sharing moments, which is one of the many reasons why I love them so much. *end of a totally inappropriate love declaration XD)


	10. Part One: Signora Tenoh's bag

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story. :)**

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**10. Signora Tenoh's bag...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday night, November 2nd 20xx_)

x.

"Signora Tenoh's bag was found behind the door next to the bar... Can you remember when she left it here on the floor?" Carrara asks Kino Makoto at the end of the interrogation, a question Shinichi would have asked her if Carrara had forgotten.

She sighs, looking tired and listless out of a sudden, a bit bored and totally out of place in her long velvet gown.

"I don't remember it was here it all. But I probably didn't notice it because it didn't really interest me. Why do you ask?"

"It seems odd that she would leave it here instead of keeping it in her dressing room," Carrara replies, evading her question.

"She knew she could trust all the people here," Kino shrugs. "We would never steal anything from her."

"Do you know where she kept her keys tonight?" Shinichi asks. While waiting in the corridor with Gentile, he could observe that the only things Carrara found in the pockets of Tenoh's slacks were a lavender silk handkerchief with her initials and her mobile phone, which is why it struck him as unusual that — apart from the key to the dressing room, which was in the pocket of her raincoat on the peg behind the door — there weren't any keys in her dressing room and in her bag at all.

"I don't know," Kino blinks at him, confused. "Didn't she have any keys in her pockets? I remember she hated carrying unnecessary stuff around, though. Maybe she didn't take them with her because Michiru is home."

"But it's strange that Kaioh didn't attend the world premiere of Tenoh's opera, isn't it?" Shinichi muses. "One would expect her to be more interested in the opera since the two of them are living together."

In answer to his indirect question, Kino only murmurs that Michiru doesn't have much free time these days. While she pretends to busy herself with beholding her well-manicured nails, Carrara gives Shinichi a knowing look conveying that he, too, is imagining dramatic scenes of a serious lover's quarrel. However, that theory doesn't seem very plausible because it doesn't really explain why Tenoh didn't have a key in her pockets or in her bag, Shinichi thinks. If they had really quarrelled with each other, it would have been more natural for Tenoh to take the keys with her so that she wouldn't have to depend on Kaioh to open the door for her.

Regarding the discovery of Tenoh's body, Kino can only tell them that she has just finished doing the dishes in the café and was wiping the bar when Seiya returned and informed her that Mamoru was going to replace Haruka during the third act. The moment she saw Rei's face, she knew that Haruka was no longer alive, especially when Rei — indicating Gentile who was ranting about Haruka's "unfortunate sickness" — told her to pull herself together and prevented her from entering Haruka's dressing room. Seiya must have guessed the truth as well because he said he would like to return to Shiho, who was still asleep, to explain everything to her when she woke up. She herself decided to watch the third act of the opera although she was still in a state of shock.

"I'm sure Signora Tenoh would have appreciated it," Carrara says soothingly.

Kino gives a small chuckle, and the sad and dreamy expression in her eyes instantly sobers, changing her outward appearance from romantic to down-to-earth and rational.

"Haruka?" she shakes her head. "Even if she had been alive, Haruka wouldn't have cared a bit! She wasn't sentimental when it came to such things. I did it for Rei, of course. Can you imagine how it must have been like, having to sing although a friend has just died?"

x.

It is already five to eleven p.m. when Carrara and Shinichi step out of the backstage café, leaving Kino Makoto who has decided to stay there and wait for Hino Rei while informing her best friends in Venice and Tokyo about Tenoh's death. Cooperative as she is, she has also given Shinichi Aino Minako's address and telephone number without apparent hesitation.

"Maybe we'll need her witness account for Seiya's alibi," Shinichi has lied to her before he offered her one of his mobile phones — a very handy invention of the Professor which he always reserves for his witnesses and suspects — because the battery of her phone needs to be recharged. In response to his gesture, Kino has given him such a warm smile that he almost felt a twinge of guilt for misusing her trust.

"Her story about the water sounds fishy, doesn't it?" Carrara says in a low voice when they are walking together through the deserted corridor. "Why should Signora Tenoh ask her for the water if she could have got it on her own?"

"I don't think so," Shinichi replies. "That part of her story did ring true to me, especially since Tenoh was apparently accustomed to ordering other people around. It's Seiya Kou whose behaviour doesn't make sense at all."

"Well, his excuse for missing the opera was implausible, too. I bet it wasn't the painkillers which kept him from attending the opera. It's a credible excuse the first time around but not the second time unless he's really the affectionate idiot they want him to be."

Even if the story with the painkillers were true, Seiya's behaviour still wouldn't make sense, Shinichi silently agrees. If Moretti and Gentile are right (and until now Shinichi doesn't have a reason to assume that they are conspiring against Seiya despite their obvious antipathy towards him), the singer must have returned to the opera house after the second act just to go out again during the second interval, departing through the exit after he came back through the main entrance, meaning that he actually walked through the foyer, passed the hall, climbed on the stage to the backstage area and — for an unknown reason — went out again for a second time while Chiba Mamoru, who had been standing at the main entrance and in the foyer during the second break, either didn't see Seiya, pretended not to see Seiya or hid the fact that he did see Seiya when Seiya returned to the opera house for the first time.

"The version of the portiere sounds more believable to me," Carrara continues. "Maybe Signor Seiya Kou really wanted to intercept Signora Haruka Tenoh's letter to his agent from whom he had hidden his love affair. I don't know how he planned to do it. But from all the things I've heard about him by now, he seems very energetic and impulsive to me. It would be in character for him to run out of the opera house to take a chance instead of sitting in the hall, watching the opera and twiddling his thumbs."

Very unlikely, Shinichi thinks without openly disagreeing with Carrara for fear of being labelled as the jealous ex-lover who can't accept the thought that his ex-girlfriend is now in a happy relationship with someone else. Carrara's theory wouldn't answer the question why Seiya went out twice and why he stayed in his dressing room during the first act and went out during the first interval like Gentile and Moretti said instead of going out immediately after quarrelling with Tenoh Haruka. However, the thing which really unsettles Shinichi is not Seiya's odd behaviour but Ai's. Kino obviously believes that they are a couple although — probably out of loyalty to Seiya — she tried to hide their relationship from Carrara and Shinichi by telling them that they are only friends. Naturally sincere and frank, Kino is not a particularly good liar. Winding back to the beginning of the second interval, Shinichi frowns at the recollection of Ai strolling in the direction of the door, looking about herself as if she were searching for someone in the hall...

Even if Kou Seiya were really her boyfriend — which is highly improbable considering their differences — it wouldn't be like Ai to forget APAH at home or to send someone else to fetch it, Shinichi thinks. Her behaviour tonight seems extremely puzzling to him. If she really forgot APAH at home — which is just as improbable as her alleged romance with the international playboy! — the Ai Shinichi knew would have fetched the painkillers herself or, if she couldn't drive the boat, go with Seiya to fetch them, not only because she was usually self-reliant and preferred to solve such minor problems on her own but also because she couldn't stand the thought of other people rummaging through her belongings.

While Shinichi is startled about the fact that Ai didn't go home to fetch her painkillers, the fact that she actually attended the second act of the opera after missing the first seems even more puzzling to him. From personal experience, Shinichi knows that the post-antidote migraine doesn't miraculously disappear without APAH. Vulnerable and emotionally less stable than she pretended to be, Ai has always had a remarkable tolerance to physical pain. However, she doesn't belong to the extraordinarily considerate and obliging people who would hide their feelings of discomfort just to please others, and Shinichi can't quite imagine her to pretend that she was fine and to suffer quietly through the second act of the opera just to please Hino Rei and Tenoh Haruka. It would be more like her to stay in Seiya's dressing room or — and this is even more likely! — to go home instead. Thinking back to the moment when he caught a glimpse of Ai's face at the beginning of the second interval, Shinichi can't remember seeing any sign of pain in it either. The only logical conclusion seems to him that she actually feigned the headaches and misused Seiya's sympathy or infatuation or whatever the singer feels for her to send him home, to keep him out of her way. However, Shinichi can't think of a reason why Ai would do that, especially since she must have known that Hino Rei expected Seiya to watch the opera, a fact which even an inattentive observer like Kino Makoto noticed... Shinichi knows Ai well enough to be sure that she would never stoop to scheming against other women even if she regarded them as a rival. And the alternative theory that she actually poisoned Tenoh Haruka and had sent Seiya away so that he wouldn't see through her plan is even more absurd.

Most probably, Ai didn't forget her painkillers and took them before the second act — assuming she had ever had any headaches at all. But then why did she lie and send Seiya home to fetch her painkillers? Or did she not lie to Seiya but to Kino because she knew Seiya had left the opera house for a completely different reason like Carrara suggested... a reason which would actually support Moretti's assertion that the singer is really Ai's boyfriend and that Tenoh had threatened to inform Seiya's agent about their secret love affair? Still, none of these theories really explain the fact that Ai must have lied about her headaches in the second interval when she met Gentile because she must have taken APAH before the second act — assuming she had ever had any headaches in the first place. Moreover, it doesn't make sense to Shinichi that Seiya would want to live with her and hide their relationship at the same time because there is absolutely no reason why he should do that, especially when he is really as frank as Chiba described.

Ai's headaches could have begun after the second act while she had stayed in the dressing room during the first act for a completely different reason, for example to sound out Seiya about his quarrel with Tenoh. She could even have feigned her headaches in front of Gentile to escape his company and spent the second interval alone in the dressing room to sulk about Seiya's absence. Although that kind of behaviour would actually be just like her, this theory would imply that she does have romantic feelings — requited or unrequited — for the former idol, something Shinichi simply doesn't want to believe.

Going through all the possible scenarios in his mind within a few seconds, Shinichi assures himself that at least he can swear that the Ai he knew would never poison anybody, much less a person like Tenoh Haruka whose company she apparently enjoyed. But then again, the Ai he knew wouldn't have disappeared from his life to go to Venice with Kou Seiya either, neither as his secretary nor his lover nor — heaven forbid! — both.

Useless theories, hypotheses and speculations with no basis in fact, Shinichi realizes in annoyance. Jumping to conclusions without a scrap of evidence is something he despises and usually doesn't do. As expected, no sooner did Ai walk into his life again than she endangers the clarity of his mind with her infuriatingly unpredictable and contradictory behaviour. Trying to shake himself out of the maddening confusion, Shinichi goes through the happenings of tonight again, mentally arranging the information he has gathered into chronological order just to realize that, absorbed in the mystery about Tenoh's death and Ai's role in it, he has completely forgotten about Ran who must still be waiting for him.

"Can I talk to a friend for a few minutes before you question Hino Rei?" Shinichi asks Carrara. "She must be waiting for me in the hall or in the foyer."

"Of course," Carrara smiles. "I need to talk with a few of my people as well. But I didn't know that a lady is waiting for you. Is she your girlfriend or a prospective girlfriend? She must be special since you're holidaying in Venice with her."

"A special friend," Shinichi replies for lack of a better phrase which can describe their friendship after the end of their childhood love. "But we aren't a couple."

x.

The magnificent concert hall with its excessive embellishments — almost hurtful to Shinichi's eyes with its golden-orange colour and the glaring red curtains — is now completely deserted apart from the two officers at the right entrance who are filling commissario Carrara in on their interrogations of the staff and the ushers. In front of the left entrance, Shinichi and Ran are standing — he leaning against the door frame and she with her arm and her head propped against the open door — talking quietly with each other while exchanging curious glances with Carrara and the officers across the hall.

Before questioning Gentile, Carrara had already given instructions to call the Questura and get someone who can call the French and Japanese police and Scotland Yard to request information on Tenoh, who was a rather cosmopolitan person and had been raised in France and England before she moved to Japan and Venice, a fact well-known among her fans. Even though he had instructed an officer to take the trash from the café to the Questura so that they can inspect the empty water bottle which Kino had thrown away, Carrara isn't optimistic enough to expect to find anything of importance, neither in it nor on it. If Signora Makoto Kino had been the culprit — provided Signora Haruka Tenoh had been murdered at all — Signora Kino most probably got rid of the evidence during the time she was alone in the café. Anybody else could have murdered Signora Tenoh as well, from

a) Signor Mamoru Chiba, who could have done it immediately after chatting with his wife and returning to the hall, to

b) Signora Rei Hino, who had been alone in her dressing room to study her scores, to

c) Signor Luigi Gentile, who found Signora Tenoh's body, to

d) Signora Shiho Miyano, that elusive "secretary" who had been alone in Signor Seiya Kou's dressing room, sleeping, to

e) Signor Seiya Kou himself, who had returned through the exit and passed Signora Tenoh's dressing room on his way to the foyer. He could have done it after talking to Signora Makoto Kino. Even the portiere could have done it although he is, without doubt, the last person Carrara would suspect. Now that Carrara is thinking about it... even he would only have needed a few minutes.

Why did Signor Seiya Kou ask Signor Gentile where his secretary was if he had passed the backstage area while she was sleeping in his dressing room? It would have been more natural for him to return to his own dressing room first where he would have met her. Among all the people in the backstage area, he is the only one with a motive. And yet it is hard to believe that a man who has been described as impulsive and hot-headed by all of his friends and enemies would murder anybody in such a neat and tidy way, with water and an unknown poison which leaves a peaceful smile on the victim's face. Most probably Signora Tenoh died naturally, as strange as it seems...

Although Shinichi can't really read Carrara's mind, deducing the commissario's train of thoughts by watching his face and studying his body language is for him as easy as falling off a log. He can do it while simultaneously informing Ran — who is less angry at him than he had feared — of Tenoh's death, conveniently omitting the fact that Seiya is one of the suspects for fear that Ran would mention it to Sonoko.

"Tenoh-sama was such a talented and beautiful person," Ran murmurs. "I can't believe that anybody had the heart to murder him."

"Maybe he wasn't murdered at all," Shinichi remarks. "We still need to wait for the results of the autopsy."

"I wonder how Seiya-sama will take this," Ran muses. "He must be busy preparing for _The Phantom of the Opera_ tomorrow night. It must be hard for him to focus."

"What does Kou have to do with it?" Shinichi asks in surprise, wondering whether she knows that Seiya is in the backstage area and whether she has learned about it by chatting with the usher who Seiya — according to Chiba's account — talked with during the second interval.

"They were good friends, so I heard. But it's not 'Kou'," Ran corrects him. "It's only 'Seiya-sama' or 'Seiya'."

"Why? Because there were three Kou's in their bands? But the other two aren't in Venice right now, are they?"

"No, that's not it," Ran smiles. "Three Lights reversed their first names and their family names to use as their stage names, written in katakana. If you call Seiya-sama 'Kou', you're calling him by his first name without an honorific since his stage name is 'Seiya Kou', not 'Kou Seiya'."

So that is the reason why everyone calls him 'Seiya', Shinichi realizes, thinking that he should have guessed it sooner. For Seiya's friends, it wouldn't make sense to call him by his surname, which he shares with his band members, and for strangers, "Seiya" would be the family name of his stage name.

"So, since 'kou' can mean 'light', it's a pun and 'Three Lights' are 'the Three Kou's'?" Shinichi asks.

"Yes, isn't it a nice idea of his agent? She is full of brilliant ideas, Sonoko said. It's her, too, who devised the colour schemes of their suits."

"His agent is female?"

"Yes, she's the daughter of the man who discovered Three Lights, Sonoko told me. But he passed away a few years ago and his daughter took over the agency afterwards. Shizuka-sama is said to be very protective of the three of them, especially Seiya-sama... Sonoko said it wouldn't surprise her if Shizuka-sama were in love with him, too. He is such a tease. After the opera, an usher told me she wouldn't wash her right hand and her left arm for the next weeks just because he had shaken her hand and given her an autograph on her arm..."

Apparently, the incorrigible flirt asked the usher standing at the left entrance — the same in front of which Chiba had been standing while chatting with his wife — for the time at five or six past eight and stayed with her to charm her until eight sixteen. The silly girl was so elated by her unbelievable luck that she had to trumpet it to Ran while Ran was waiting for Shinichi in the foyer after the opera ended.

"Did she mention that he was searching for his secretary?" Shinichi asks.

Ran's eyes widen in surprise.

"How come you know about his secretary, too? No, but she mentioned he had asked the artistic director about his secretary before he talked to her. He also told her that "Shiho" — that's the name of his secretary — was suffering from headaches and that he couldn't watch the opera because he had gone out to get her painkillers."

"Are you sure she said he talked to the artistic director _before_ talking to her?" Shinichi asks.

"Yes, she said that, after asking her for the time and giving her the autograph, he returned to his dressing room to wake up his secretary. Can you imagine that he is really cohabiting with her? Alessandra, the usher I talked with, told me that a friend of hers knows that they're a couple because she has been stalking him for over a year by now. His secretary and he are always together, although she seems to spend a lot of time with Tenoh-sama, too, when Seiya-sama goes to his rehearsals. I wonder what Sonoko will say about this. She often told me that Seiya-sama is public property and that she's glad he has never had a real girlfriend. All of his fans are like her, consoling themselves with the thought that he is only playing around and would never let anybody tie him down. Maybe that's why he has to hide his girlfriend from them."

"Is she sure that they are a couple?" Shinichi raises his brow. "They could be sharing an apartment in a purely platonic way, couldn't they?"

"Why should they do that if they aren't a couple?" she asks him, puzzled.

"Maybe she's broke and he's helping her out until she can afford an apartment on her own," he suggests. "It's easy to mistake two people for a couple, you know..."

It's actually much harder to act out "star" and "cross," Ai had said, pushing her hair behind her ear with the little grin she always wore on her face whenever she felt superior to him. Seeing a decent-looking pair together, people often automatically assume that they are lovers, perhaps because most people are romantics at heart, the poor fools. Just a few telltale signs of intimacy, a little bit of platonic flirting in a way which looks outrageous to other people although there's actually nothing naughty about it, and our charade will be perfect. Stealing the purse from the back pocket of the other person's jeans, adjusting their clothes for them, absently stroking their neck while pushing a strand of their hair out of their face or wiping away a speck of dust on the inside of their leg... One can do so many scandalous things even without really touching the other person. Of course all the gestures should be effortless and natural, without any sign of awkwardness as if much more intimate things have already happened between us in private. Since we want to win despite your third-rate acting skills, just try to pretend that this is your life in three or four years and that I'm Ran...

"How is Seiya as an actor? Have you ever watched anything starring him at Suzuki's?"

"He is an awesome actor, really, just like Taiki-sama and Yaten-sama. Sonoko and I bought these inedible buns once just because Three Lights were eating them in an ad."

"Can you help me a bit with the investigation?" he asks, remembering the problem that he can't allow Ran to run into Ai and that — if he doesn't hurry — Ran might get the idea to ask Seiya for an autograph. "Please go back to the hotel now and research on the internet about Tenoh and Seiya for me. I'll come back later as soon as this is over, tomorrow morning before breakfast at the latest."

"Why can't I stay here with you?" she waves her new smartphone in front of his face. "The battery of my phone is still full. I can google their names while waiting for you."

He doesn't think that's a good idea, he tells her. Carrara, the inspector, is the type that would immediately jump to the conclusion that she is his girlfriend if she sticks around, and an inspector like Carrara certainly won't trust a detective who lets his girlfriend distract him from the crime. Shinichi is sure that Carrara is not a misogynist — actually the complete opposite — but he thinks he has his prejudices...

"Alright, I get it. You want to be alone again, don't you? Just come back before breakfast," she sighs and immediately turns to walk in the direction of the cloakroom.

"Wait, it's late," Shinichi remarks, pulling her back by her wrist. "I'll ask the inspector if an officer can accompany you."

She sighs again, giving him a tired smile.

"No thanks, it's not far away from here, and I'll knock out any guy who tries to come near me," she playfully growls, raising her fist at an invisible opponent. The heart-shaped sapphire on the ring finger of her right hand momentarily catches the light of the chandeliers above, blinding him with its blue beam. Blinking, he only smiles in reply, pretending not to notice the sad gleam which has stolen into her eyes, and raises his hand to wave her goodbye while she turns and walks away.

"What a pretty and charming girl," Carrara, who has approached him in the meantime, gives him a little nudge. "Her ring is beautiful as well. Must have cost a fortune. Did you give it to her?"

"No," Shinichi shakes his head, thinking that this mystery, too, is one he hasn't solved yet. "She didn't get it from me."

x.

**AN: **I'm very sorry for the slow update. Life was busy and I felt dead during the past week. (Whenever I tried to write fics, I fell asleep. Lol) I'm thankful for reviews, especially the ones which tell me what you think about the plot and whether there are things which look like a plot hole to you. It's really hard for me to write a mystery because I have to plan so much in advance (and planning is not my forte). I feel like writing a few crack one-shots without any mysteries at all for a change.

I'm sorry that there was no Shiho in this chapter as well. Actually I've already written the part when she finally appears but not the part before that one, so you still have to wait until next week to see her.


	11. Part One: Since time is running short

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story (and who didn't even complain about having to beta a chapter which is longer than 8600 words!) :)**

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**11. Since time is running short...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday night, November 2nd 20xx_)

m.

Since time is running short, they must question Signora Hino now before he can inform Shinichi about all the things his officers have found out. The talks with the ushers, the bar keepers and the technical crew were very fruitful indeed although the results still don't shed light on the mystery of what Signora Tenoh could have died of. In fact, things have become even more complicated, Carrara admits on the way to Hino's dressing room.

Apart from Gentile and Moretti, nobody thought that Seiya returned after the second act through the main entrance, neither the ushers nor the bar keepers nor any of the technical staff. Nobody has seen him passing the hall or climbing the stage before the third act either although a few of them can remember seeing him flirt with the usher at the left entrance and talk to Gentile at the bar some time before the third act. Sadly, neither of the people who remembered it cared enough about the time to look at their watches.

"Did he talk to the usher before or after talking to Gentile?" Shinichi asks.

"I don't know," Carrara replies while they are walking towards the stage. "Most of them only saw him with either the usher or Signor Gentile. If my memory serves me correctly, Signor Mamoru Chiba is the only one who saw him with both. Why do you ask?"

"Just curiosity. All the things tonight seem so out of order to me," Shinichi replies evasively.

"The people here aren't famous for being exact and orderly," Carrara remarks. "I don't think we can really trust any of the statements when it comes to the time and the order of things. We can't even be sure that they haven't made it all up."

Apparently, everyone working at the opera house enjoyed gossiping about Tenoh Haruka and Seiya Kou. The ushers seem to have resented Tenoh a bit because "he" would hit on any good-looking young woman in the vicinity whenever "he" appeared, breaking countless hearts with "his" irresistible charm and "his" empty promises. Surprisingly, they can't say the same for Seiya Kou who is solely focused on his roles and his secretary and who — at least during the winter season when he sings at La Fenice — seems like a workaholic in the truest sense of the word. Despite his scandalous reputation which preceded him when he came to Venice, he appears to all the people at La Fenice rather mysterious and distant, barricading himself in his dressing room whenever he is not on stage and avoiding all kinds of social gatherings. Furthermore, none of the people here know his secretary personally although it's common knowledge that she often accompanies him and that the poor pair always has to flee from his obsessive fans.

"Apart from the one usher he flirted with — Signora Alessandra DiGiorgio, a friend of Signora Nadia Gorowitz — who claims that they are a cohabiting couple, something she only heard from Signora Gorowitz, all the ushers and the technicians told us that Signor Seiya Kou seems romantically interested in his secretary while she is keeping him at arm's length," Carrara continues. "She spent a lot of private time with Signora Tenoh, too, and was often seen with Signora Tenoh while Signor Seiya Kou was busy rehearsing at La Fenice. Sometimes they even went off on their own, leaving Signor Seiya Kou alone. Signor Seiya Kou must have been beside himself with jealousy, living with her while she was interested in someone else... But that's the irony of fate, being pursued by an army of women without having the slightest chance with the one he is in love with. His looks and his voice are completely useless for him when it comes to her unless he dares to go as far as changing his gender to suit her preference."

Amused at Carrara's ridiculous theory, Shinichi is about to remark that one of the things he is absolutely sure of is Miyano Shiho's preference for men when the door to the backstage café opens and Chiba Mamoru appears, followed by Kino Makoto who flashes them a bashful grin before closing the door behind her. Both of them have already put on their coats — his short and black and hers green and long — which Chiba must have fetched from Hino's dressing room instead of the cloakroom because Shinichi has not seen him passing the hall. Makoto and he are going to wait for Hino, Seiya and Shiho at Seiya's boat, Chiba Mamoru explains. After the tragedy tonight, a bit of fresh air will do Kino good.

"But it might take us another hour before we can let them go home," Carrara says. "Wouldn't it be better for the two of you to stay here instead of waiting for them in the cold?"

They can always come back if it's getting too chilly, Chiba declines, politely thanking Carrara for his concern while Kino approaches Shinichi with a smile, returning him his mobile phone with an expression of immense gratitude in her eyes.

"I've called a friend in Tokyo," she tells him, fishing out her wallet. "I think it cost you a lot because I tend to ramble whenever I'm nervous."

"Please don't," Shinichi rejects her attempt to pay him, wondering how she would react if she knew that all of her calls have been recorded. "I'm glad I was able to help you a bit."

After praising him for his generosity once again and telling him to drop into her flower shop soon so that she can thank him with cakes and flowers, she hurries after Chiba towards the exit in large strides, slamming her heels confidently and vigorously on the floor. Gazing after her with some surprise, Carrara remarks to Shinichi that her attitude now is distinctively different from the attitude she had before.

m.

Hearing a commotion on stage just when they are about to climb the stairs to Hino's dressing room, Shinichi stops and turns when a woman wearing a long black coat and a wide-brim black hat emerges from the curtains, rushing towards them with an air of fierce determination. One of the young officers who has been talking to Carrara at the right entrance of the hall is closely following her with his arms awkwardly stretched out in front of him, obviously unsure about whether he should pull her back or not.

"Please, you're not allowed to enter the backstage area," the officer exclaims in an attempt to stop her without telling her about Tenoh's death, throwing his arms into the air in a helpless gesture when he sees Carrara's raised eyebrow.

"Why not?" she demands, turning her angelic face towards Carrara and Shinichi while proceeding to the door of Tenoh's dressing room. "I'm Haruka's girlfriend. Is he still in there? I need to talk to him."

Her voice is clear and slightly higher than expected, possessing an edge which, in combination with its pleasant timbre, is vaguely intriguing.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that's impossible," Carrara says, gently removing her hand from the doorknob. "Signora Tenoh..."

Even before he can inform her of Tenoh's death, Kaioh Michiru's eyes widen in horror at the realization of what he is going to say. Noticing her deathly pale face and the way she staggers back a step from the door, Shinichi drags her by her arm to the backstage café and plants her onto a chair before she can break down while Carrara orders the officer who has followed them to pour her a glass of water. For lack of words which aren't meaningless or downright rude in this situation — "We're sorry for your loss" somehow seems a wrong thing to say — the three of them wait in silence until the colour returns to her face and she fixes her mascara-framed eyes inquiringly on Carrara, waiting for an explanation.

An autopsy is unavoidable considering Signora Tenoh's sudden death, Carrara insists after giving Kaioh a short summary of the things which happened, skipping all the details. While he doesn't suspect anybody or even dares to imply that Tenoh died an unnatural death, he needs to stick to the standard procedure... just the usual bureaucracy one has to put up with nowadays, nothing to worry about, really...

"Alright," she only says, knitting her perfectly groomed brows while staring into her glass of water. She has removed her black hat in the meantime, causing her loose sea-green locks to spill over her shoulders and down her back in gentle waves, looking like a sight evocative of Andersen's mermaid. Contemplating her face with the anonymous admiration people usually have for beauty so unbelievably great that it is almost painful to behold, Shinichi marvels at the inaccessible coldness of it, wondering whether Kaioh's inability to move him even just a little bit on a more personal level has something to do with her flawless features lacking the charm of imperfection.

"Why did you come so late?" Shinichi asks her. "The opera was supposed to end at half-past nine, wasn't it?" Even if she had taken Tenoh's quirk of delaying the last part of a concert for fifteen to thirty minutes into consideration, Kaioh should have appeared about ten p.m. instead of over an hour later.

They wanted to meet at the cinema to watch a movie together tonight, Kaioh tells them in a tired voice. But when Haruka didn't come at half-past ten — fifteen minutes after the movie had already started — and she still couldn't reach her on the phone, she grew restless and decided to go to La Fenice, assuming that Haruka had been partying with her friends and had forgotten to switch on her mobile phone after the performance.

"I was late, too, because I'm always late," she explains, taking a sip from her water. "But Haruka usually isn't. She is always very punctual, which is why her absence worried me."

A strange assertion considering Tenoh's continual lateness even during a concert. However, it does seem to Shinichi as if Kaioh adored Tenoh with a blind love close to madness and overlooked her faults more than willingly.

"I was surprised that you didn't watch the opera," Shinichi remarks, wondering why a woman who seems so devoted to her life partner would pass up such a chance.

"I preferred to stay home," she explains, unfazed by his questioning gaze. "I wanted to work on a few paintings because I have a deadline to meet. Haruka said she didn't mind that I couldn't come to the opera if I went with her to the cinema afterwards. The movie was more important for us."

"What movie were you going to watch?" Shinichi asks, surprised at her statement that it was more important for her and Tenoh than the world premiere of Tenoh's own opera was. But nothing can describe his shock when she gives him a faint, enigmatic smile — a Haibara-Ai-smile — and answers in a British accent: "_Charade_."

m.

"I saw an oil painting of Tenoh as Sherlock Holmes in her dressing room," Shinichi continues after a moment of stupefied silence in which the memory of Ai lying on the sofa, watching _Charade_ the night he took the antidote appears so vividly in front of his eyes as if he were looking at a photo of it. "Did you paint it? I'm curious because I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, too."

"Sherlock Holmes?" Kaioh stares at him, apparently confused.

"There were also a few Sherlock Holmes novels in her dressing room," he tells her. "A very beautiful edition, handbound. Were they a present from you?"

"I don't know anything about such things," she sighs, "and I'm not in the mood to think about them now. I'd like to go home, if you don't mind."

"Would you like to see her body before you go?" Carrara asks. "To say goodbye?"

"No," she vehemently declines, clutching at her handbag like a drowning person at a life buoy. "I don't want to see a corpse. I want to see her alive." Staring into space, she murmurs with an expression of utter despair in her eyes: "There would be no hope left after seeing her corpse, because there is nothing in this world worth living for if Haruka really died."

"That's not true," Shinichi says sharply. "There will always be a lot of other people who need you. One should never run away from one's fate, no matter how much one wants to do it."

Turning her face to him in surprise, Kaioh breaks into hysterical laughter while her azure eyes are glistening with unshed tears, disturbing the young officer because he hasn't expected such a behaviour from a woman like her. Then she stops and frowns into space again, blinking a few times in quick succession as if there was something she can't understand. Apparently, her disbelief at Tenoh's sudden death hasn't passed yet, and Carrara throws Shinichi a look conveying that he, too, has begun to worry about what might happen after the realization kicks in and she finds herself alone in the apartment she once shared with her girlfriend.

"I'm sorry," she says after regaining her composure and empties her glass of water in one gulp. "Please don't worry about me. I'm really not the suicidal type."

"We only need your contact addresses in Venice before you can go home," Shinichi says, pulling his notebook and his pen out of his pocket. "Since I heard you have two, I'd like to have both."

"Haruka and I only have one," she shakes her head, persistently using the present tense when she talks about Tenoh.

"Seiya Kou is living in the other apartment of yours, isn't he?" Shinichi casually remarks. "I mean the apartment in Cannaregio... I heard he is living with his secretary there."

"It's their apartment now since he already bought it from me," Kaioh corrects him, fixing him with a gaze which now shows the same recognition he has already seen in Chiba's and Hino's eyes.

"Come to think of it... It's rather odd that a singer would share his apartment with his secretary," Shinichi runs his hand through his hair in mock distraction, pretending to talk to himself.

"He likes her very much," Kaioh explains with wariness in her voice. "She is an extremely efficient girl. He says he would be lost without her organizing his schedule and taking care of his paperwork."

Does she know where they met each other? He is curious because Miyano Shiho is an old schoolfriend of his.

She gazes at him thoughtfully with strangely knowing eyes before she throws a quick sidelong glance at Carrara and sighs.

"I don't know," she dismisses his question with an impatient movement of her head. "You should ask them all these things personally. I'd like to go home now."

Will she be alright at home all alone, Carrara asks her before suggesting that she call a few friends or relatives who can look after her during the first days after her partner's death.

"I'd rather be alone," she says decisively. "I'm accustomed to being alone."

Another strange statement considering she is living with Tenoh, Shinichi thinks, puzzled about her last sentence. But he can't detect any sign of loneliness or self-pity in her voice, only the irritation of a proud woman who wants to deal with her grief on her own without other people continually touching on it.

"Can you please give us your address?" Carrara asks, handing her his notebook and his pen, which she ignores just like she did with Shinichi's. Instead, she dictates him her address with the air of a chairwoman dictating a letter to her secretary while regarding him with her superior and calm gaze.

The mental image of her sitting at an antique mahogany desk in front of _The Return of Sherlock Holmes_ suddenly appears before Shinichi's eyes. And although her statement that she doesn't know anything about the Sherlock Holmes novels sounded true to his ears, he can imagine her with a pen in her hand — probably an exquisite limited edition which suits her style — smiling mysteriously to herself while writing with black ink: "To the Sherlock of the 21st century. I hope you like my presents. Michiru..."

"I'm going to contact you tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and send you Signora Tenoh's belongings," Carrara smiles, gallantly extending his hand to help her to her feet while gesturing the officer at the bar to move nearer with a movement of his head. "Since it's late, officer Alessi will bring you home now."

"I'd like someone else to bring me home," she declines, ignoring Carrara's outstretched hand, and hesitates for a moment before asking: "Seiya... Is he still in his dressing room?"

"Yes, he is, but we still need to ask him a few routine questions, and you'll have to wait for another hour because we still need to talk to Signora Hino, too, who has come with him in his motorboat tonight. Signora Kino and Signor Chiba are waiting for him at his boat as well. I fear there won't be enough space in his boat for all of you. I can ask them to accompany you home, though, if you like."

"Well, then it can't be helped. I'm going to wait for Seiya at his boat with Makoto and Mamoru," she says, gracefully rises from the chair, bids them goodbye with a civil smile and saunters down the corridor towards the exit while the officer who has been assigned to escort her is gazing after her with a look of regret, blushing like a little girl.

Watching her walk away with natural grace, her shoulders relaxed, her head held high and her feet put on the floor in gentle, deliberate movements like those of ballet dancers without the artificial turnout of their feet, Shinichi is strangely reminded of Ai and wonders how a woman whose life partner just died can still walk like this.

m.

Waiting for them in front of her dressing table with a dark look on her face, Hino Rei might as well be a modern version of Snow White with her fair skin, blood-red lips and sleek black hair reaching her waist. She has exchanged her mauve silk dress and pumps for a red pullover, a knee-length black skirt, black tights and a pair of red sneakers, shaking off her previous tired and worn look. Even without the black eyeliner, her almond-shaped eyes are sharp and intense, and the outlines of her beautiful face are now noticeably softer after removing the thick layers of make-up she wore on stage. Despite the angry look in her eyes, offstage-Hino appears to Shinichi now much more approachable than she seemed when Carrara and he talked to her the first time.

"Mamoru already told me that Haruka died naturally," she says without further ado. "There's no need to question us anymore, right?" she smirks at them, swinging the bag in her hand. "You've let me wait for an eternity! I'm going home now."

Only a few routine questions, Carrara gives her a placatory smile. He knows that she must be extremely exhausted after such a strenuous and eventful evening. They are only going to bother her for ten to fifteen minutes, not more. These are just routine inquiries.

In contrast to Chiba Mamoru and Kino Makoto, however, Hino Rei flatly refuses to say anything about the happenings of tonight. Anything she can tell them they must have already heard from Makoto or Mamoru, which is why she is not going to waste time chatting about irrelevant things. She herself doesn't know anything, hasn't seen or heard anything worth mentioning and has forgotten everything she has seen or heard by now because she was totally absorbed in her role, which was her first solo role and so extremely hard that she had practically worked her fingers to the bone just to survive through it. She will never forgive Haruka for writing such an insanely difficult soprano part and giving it to such an inexperienced singer like her just to drop dead in the middle of the world premiere and abandon her so that she had to make do with Mamoru — an amateur pianist! — to blunder through the rest of the concert, making a fool of herself in front of a full house.

"But the performance was still a great success, wasn't it?" Carrara tries to appease her. "The third act wasn't bad at all."

"No, it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't great either. It wasn't even good! It certainly wasn't Mamoru's fault because he had practised his part extremely well, much better than Haruka, to be honest. But, as an accompanist, he naturally lacked the routine. I had to adjust myself to him instead of vice versa, and he strictly kept to the same steady regular beat throughout the whole act as if he were playing with a metronome!" She winces at the memory. "It was such a ridiculously stiff performance! And the audience was so distracted by Haruka's absence that nobody even pretended to pay attention to us... If Haruka weren't already dead, I would consider killing her for ruining my debut!"

"Why do you call Tenoh's opera a concert?" Shinichi asks. "I'm curious because the artistic director called it a concert, too."

Raising her brows at him, Hino, who has ignored him until now, calmly studies him with the same attitude with which other people would study an insect whose remarkable hideousness has caught their interest, a very large cockcroach, for example, or a very fat fly. Accustomed to making a positive impression on all the women he encounters, Shinichi wonders whether the instant dislike Hino has taken to him has anything to do with the recognition he saw in her eyes back in the corridor.

"It's called an opera and somehow gives one the impression that it is really an opera because of the operatic character of the pieces. But formally, it should be called a concert," she explains with an exasperated sigh. "A three-part series of songs with piano accompaniment and an operatic performance by the singer, preferably a tenor or a soprano. Haruka said that, since there's no opera for only one singer and a piano in the world, she'd written a ridiculously difficult and long one and dedicated it to Seiya to pay him back for his puerile pranks. I told her nobody would want to ruin their voice and perform it, much less Seiya who she can't control, so she simply dumped the whole thing on me and dared me to do it. I can't believe I was stupid enough to let her talk me into this. But it's no use trying to resist her. She'd always win."

"So Signora Tenoh dedicated the opera to Signor Seiya Kou who didn't even listen to it? After pushing yourself so much for tonight's performance, you must be angry at him for missing the opera. Signora Kino told us you two are good friends. It was certainly thoughtless of him to let you down like that," Carrara observes, smiling.

"No," Hino says sharply. "I'm not angry at him at all since I know he would have come if it had been possible. Seiya is usually very conscientious and reliable. He might be fashionably late or turn up at the last minute, but he'd always come. Even during his teen idol years, he never missed a single concert, neither of himself nor of his friends and colleagues."

"I heard he once broke down during one of his concerts," Shinichi remarks.

"At the end of it," she says warily. "He was already finished with the performance and broke down before the curtain calls. That happened only once, though."

"So it's true that he was so much in love with a girl that he broke down at the end of a concert?" Carrara asks, incredulous.

"Of course not," she winces. "Seiya is the most resilient person on earth. No love problems can break him like that. Back then many different things added up in a pretty difficult phase of his life and he was very sick into the bargain. It only last for a few days, though, before he was back on his feet again. I wouldn't remind him of that episode if I were you. He wouldn't appreciate it."

"No, he certainly wouldn't," Carrara agrees. "You know, it surprised me to learn that Signora Tenoh dedicated the opera to him since I heard there had been many problems between them. Someone told me they were rivals. And I heard from somebody else that they had been quarrelling tonight, too, this time about Signora Shiho Miyano, the secretary whom he is living with."

"They always quarrelled about something," Hino shrugs. "I don't know about any quarrels tonight, though. Must have happened while I was studying the scores."

"The relationship between Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Shiho Miyano seems very ambiguous, though. Everybody tells us something different. Is she a good friend of his or only his secretary, or is there something more between them?"

Hino raises her brow at him, visibly amused.

"If you can really believe the fairy tale that Seiya is sharing his beloved refuge from the world with his secretary, go ahead."

"So she is really his girlfriend?" Shinichi asks in disbelief, aghast at Hino's remark because she seems an astute observer to him. After Chiba's witness account, he had been absolutely positive that Ai was only a secretary and friend whose good looks Seiya utilized to fight off the advances of his female fans. However, noticing Kino Makoto's hesitation and Kaioh Michiru's reticence when the nature of their relationship was mentioned, he is no longer sure...

"He insists that she isn't, but when I grilled him about it, he admitted that he'd like her to be." Rummaging through her large bag, Hino fishes out a red lipstick, which she applies with artfully concealed nervousness. "I'll deny telling you anything and won't hesitate to sue you if you're low enough to spill it to the reporters and the paparazzi. I'm only telling you about them because I hate beating about the bush when it comes to something as obvious as this." She shrugs, running her fingers through her long black hair. "Nobody who has ever seen them together can believe the story that she is his secretary, apart from the fact that a singer doesn't need a secretary to begin with. Seiya has been in love with her for years by now, showering her with attention and flowers and sneaking her a kiss whenever he thinks nobody is looking. She always pretends to fight him off but she seems to like it." Frowning, she straightens her skirt and sighs. "They actually do look like an item to me, going on evening passeggiata strolls together and bickering about who is going to cook and who is going to do the laundry. It wouldn't surprise me if he finally let the cat out of the bag and admitted that they are already married."

"But why should he try to hide their relationship even from his friends?" Carrara asks.

"I don't know," she shrugs. "Seiya has always been rather distant and secretive despite his outward appearance. Maybe he is hiding her from everyone to spare her of the publicity? She doesn't seem like the type who would enjoy it. Right now, she isn't really interesting in the public eye despite all the rumours about them. Everyone can see that they flirt a lot in public, but it doesn't seem odd considering her looks and his reputation, especially since he still flirts around with others, too. As long as he denies it, she is only one of the hundreds of women whom they try to pair up with him in the gossip columns. But as his official girlfriend, she'd be in the centre of public interest. You must know that, despite his reputation and his flirting, Seiya was as pure as the driven snow. If they found out that there was something more between them than a harmless little flirt, the journalists and his fans would immediately dissect Shiho."

"So the scandal with Chiba's wife was something the reporters made up?" Shinichi asks, deciding to take everything she told him with a pinch of salt because the phrase "as pure as the driven snow" absolutely doesn't agree with the things he has heard about the former teen idol.

"You're really fixated on Seiya, aren't you?" Hino eyes him with a look of distaste on her face. "That one was Haruka's fault because she absolutely had to stick her nose into other people's business. But I can assure you Seiya has completely forgotten about it by now. Even Mamoru doesn't care about it anymore."

"What did Signora Tenoh have to do with it?" Carrara asks, confused.

"I'm not going to spread malicious gossip," Hino says, trying to look indignant without being able to hide her relief at the realization that Carrara and Shinichi know less about the affair than she has assumed. "It's just some unfortunate misunderstanding which they already cleared up long ago. Anyway... Makoto told me Shiho had a migraine tonight and that Seiya went out to get her painkillers. So, quarrel or no quarrel, he is out of the picture since he couldn't have had anything to do with Haruka's death. Can you imagine him driving home to fetch the woman of his dreams painkillers and then coming back to murder Haruka in her dressing room before giving the painkillers to Shiho? I can't. Why should he do something so absurd?" Hino's brows furrow. "I don't believe he'd have had the heart to do that to me either, knowing that it's my first evening in a main role."

"He could have given his secretary the painkillers before murdering Tenoh," Shinichi suggests, deciding to play devil's advocate with her.

As expected, Hino shoots him a withering glare, and Shinichi thinks in amusement that, in her difficult way, she is rather predictable.

"He couldn't. He came to me after the second break and was here for a few minutes — at eight fifteen, I remember — to apologize about his absence. He told me Shiho was sleeping on the sofa in his dressing room and that he decided not to give her the painkillers because he didn't want to disturb her. Haruka was still alive at that time because Signor Gentile told us he talked to her for the last time at a quarter past eight. Seiya would have had to go to Haruka immediately after leaving me and start a conversation with Haruka to distract her and murder her before going to Shiho — an impossible task in such a short time because Haruka was very smart and very capable of defending herself. He was in his dressing room when we discovered Haruka's body... It would have been such a cold-blooded murder!" She frowns. "No, that's absurd. It's not like him. Seiya isn't a man to bear grudges, apart from the fact that nobody could have murdered Haruka with a cup of water."

"I didn't say I suspected anyone," Carrara says. "I heard the relations between him and Signora Tenoh were strained, though. It made me curious..."

"Seiya didn't have anything against Haruka," Hino decisively shakes her head. "It was Haruka who always seemed to have something against him. She provoked him into a fight all the time, invading his privacy and giving him unwanted advice about how to live his life despite knowing exactly how much he hates those things."

"Was there some sort of rivalry between them?" Carrara asks.

"I think Haruka envied him a bit since the moment they met," Hino shrugs. "Like Michiru, they both were great at pretty much anything without working themselves into the ground like normal human beings. But somehow Haruka never seemed to be able to enjoy her privileged existence as Seiya does. Seiya is the epitome of happiness, and Haruka apparently begrudged him his ability to have fun."

"She was unhappy?" Carrara asks in surprise.

"No, she didn't seem unhappy to me, only much more complicated and driven than she appeared at first glance. And she loved to be in the spotlight. I think she disliked Seiya because he was more popular than her. She didn't like men in general. The only man she could stand was Mamoru because he is diplomatic enough to handle her." Hino sighs. "I loved Haruka very much as everybody else here did. Nobody was really immune to her charm and her forceful personality. But I'm not so blind when it comes to Haruka's weaknesses like Makoto who would have had her limbs chopped off for her." She frowns, staring into the distance. "You know what? If Seiya were dead, I would immediately have jumped to the conclusion that Haruka did it. But, as things are, it doesn't make sense to me that he would ruin his perfect life by murdering her."

"Signor Seiya Kou seems to have a sunny disposition," Carrara says thoughtfully.

"Seems? He is and has always been carefree save for a few occasions when he really had a reason to be upset. And that state never lasts long." A small smile flits across her face. "He is a survivor. Nothing will ever break his spirit."

"How was the relationship between Signora Haruka Tenoh and Signora Michiru Kaioh?" Carrara asks. "I wonder whether it was a stormy one because Signora Kaioh didn't attend the world premiere of her life partner tonight."

"You're making a lot of assumptions for which you have absolutely no proof," Hino sighs. "Michiru probably had better things to do than to attend an 'opera' which Haruka only wrote as a practical joke on Seiya. Apart from that, Michiru is always a real lady, not somebody one can have a stormy relationship with." She yawns demonstratively and turns her attention to the mirror to put on a red woolly hat and a white cashmere shawl, fastidiously rearranging her bangs afterwards. "Another woman wouldn't have been able to put up with Haruka for so many years, I think. As a friend, Haruka was a jewel of a person. But she was a real nightmare of a life partner, bossy and overbearing, unreasonably jealous all the time although she was a dreadful flirt and unfaithful herself. No pretty woman was safe from her..." Realizing that she has gossiped about her friends although she didn't intend to, Hino frowns — interestingly enough, not at Carrara's but only at Shinichi's reflection — and aggressively adds: "Michiru loved her very much, despite all that. And what does it have to do with Haruka's death, anyway? If you believe Michiru or anybody of us could have done anything to harm Haruka, you're way off the mark."

"There is a Sherlock Holmes painting in Tenoh's dressing room. Do you know who painted it?" Shinichi asks, changing the topic. "I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan and like it very much."

No, she doesn't know who painted it, she says with a shrug, and she really couldn't care less because it's totally irrelevant. In reply to his next question regarding the Sherlock Holmes novels, Hino declares in exasperation that — before tonight when she saw Haruka's corpse — she had never been in Haruka's dressing room, had never seen any Sherlock Holmes novels or Sherlock Holmes paintings and, if she had seen anything related to Sherlock Holmes, she wouldn't remember it because she is absolutely not interested in Sherlock Holmes in general.

"Haruka loved her privacy," her frown deepens, "even more than Seiya who at least lets us visit him. They both had got a thing about their dressing rooms as well. Somehow I have the impression they spent more time on decorating their dressing rooms than on rehearsing and studying their scores."

Slipping into her coat with the air of a warrior who is putting on his armour, she indicates the old clock on her dressing table and remarks: "You said ten to fifteen minutes. But it's almost midnight. You've stolen too much of my time!"

"When Seiya came here to visit you, did you look at the clock or did you only guess the time?" Shinichi asks her.

"Of course I looked at the clock," she raises her brow at him, the corners of her lips curling up in amusement. Obviously, she is thinking to herself that he doesn't live up to his excellent reputation because he seems a bit slow on the uptake.

"But your clock is fifteen minutes fast," Shinichi remarks with a glance at his watch. "Did you take that into consideration when you told us the time Seiya was here, or didn't you know that your clock is fast?"

The expression of shock and confusion on her face — a reaction so immediate that Shinichi doubts it is faked — turns into intense pain before she regains her composure and defiantly meets his gaze, smirking with a nonchalant wave of her arm.

"That old clock is always fifteen minutes fast. It showed eight thirty when he came here. So I told you it was eight fifteen."

"Your clock isn't fifteen minutes fast," Carrara pedantically observes. "It's ten minutes slow." He turns to Shinichi with a confused look on his face. "So your watch must be twenty-five minutes slow because I'm sure that mine is keeping good time. My mobile phone shows the same time as well." Throwing a glance at Shinichi's watch, he exclaims in surprise: "But your watch is keeping good time, too..."

"Sorry, my mistake," Shinichi smiles at Hino. "It was a slip of the tongue. I wanted to say your clock is about fifteen, well, ten minutes, slow."

Although he knows that there is a temperamental character behind that cool and tough facade, he is still surprised about the barely controlled fury and hatred he can see in her eyes. Underneath her boiling anger, he can also identify sadness, disappointment and fear flickering by turns across her face. At some point, one of those feelings must have won because Hino only sighs, deciding to adapt herself to the situation although her hands are still trembling with rage.

"Well, what shall I say? I think I made a mistake, too. One gets accustomed to adjusting oneself to a slow clock, and I'm sure I automatically added that ten minutes when we talked. Anyway, he was here at eight fifteen and stayed for a few minutes, and I will stick to my story even in court no matter whether you believe me or not. I think I'm getting really tired and distracted, which is a signal for me to go to bed as soon as possible. I suggest you let Seiya and Shiho go home now as well instead of pestering them about Haruka's death. Seiya needs to be in shape for tomorrow night."

"We still need your address and contact number before you go," Shinichi reminds her with a smile, handing her his notebook and his pen.

"Why, you aren't the commissario leading the investigation, are you?" she smirks at him, pushing his notebook aside. "You're only a private sleuth who snoops around here because your nose told you that there are mysteries to solve. Too bad you're dead wrong this time, because the mysteries are all about private love affairs of other people, things which should be none of your concern, not that a mystery nerd like you would care."

"May I have your contact address, Signora?" Carrara asks with a smile, handing her a sheet of paper, which she declines.

"Here," she says, pulling a card out of her handbag. "I'm going home now. Good night."

Leaning against the banister while waiting for Hino to lock up her dressing room, Shinichi throws a glance at the card in Carrara's hand and realizes that her address is the same as Aino Minako's.

"I didn't know you're sharing an apartment with Aino Minako," he remarks. "Or are you two neighbours?"

Turning round to him with a hand on the banister, Hino's dark eyes light up with a wicked glint.

"We're sharing an apartment. But she is neither my life partner nor my 'secretary', if that's what you wanted to know," she smirks at him while proudly descending the stairs. "We're only good friends. Get your mind out of the gutter, you perverted little sleuth!"

m.

Muttering something about primadonnas and their bad hair day under his breath, Carrara gives Shinichi's shoulder a reassuring clap before following Hino downstairs. In response, Shinichi only shrugs, thinking that — compared to Haibara Ai's hot and cold treatment — Hino's temper tantrums are rather harmless, perhaps even helpful because they have given him exactly the answers he wanted. Before he pointed it out to her, Hino obviously didn't know that her clock was slow; and for a reason he can easily guess, she believes to know with certainty who of her friends put it back.

The moment she reaches the end of the staircase and turns to the right, Hino stops and gazes with some surprise in the direction of the backstage café. Noticing the little smile on her face as she resumes walking, Shinichi can deduce the reason even before he hears the rattling sound and sees the small bunch of keys flying through the air, landing with unerring accuracy in the open palm of her outstretched hand.

"Since there's not enough space for all of us in the boat, I thought it'd be better if you bring everyone home now instead of waiting for us," remarks a voice in Japanese which Shinichi immediately identifies as that of Ai's alleged boyfriend due to its inherently seductive and captivating beauty. Facing the source of the voice, Shinichi calmly sizes up the famous singer, who — despite looking completely different from Kuroba — reminds him oddly of Kaitou Kid because there is the same air about him, the same somnambulistic confidence and effortless grace along with a complete absence of social fear, things Tenoh must have meant when she said that he radiated "genuine star quality."

"I'll come back and fetch you later," Hino says in the same casual tone, her voice sounding slightly higher and less husky when she speaks Japanese than when she speaks Italian. "Hopefully you don't mind that I've already spilled all about your 'secretary' and you. There's no need to keep such things secret from the law, you know. They'd have found it out on their own, anyway, when they see you two."

"I don't mind. As far as I know, sharing one's apartment with one's secretary isn't considered a crime here," Seiya Kou, who is leaning against the door to the backstage café, observes while Hino Rei only waves his words away in a dismissive gesture.

"Sharing one's bed with one's secretary isn't considered a crime either. That's why there's no need to hide it," she deadpans before disappearing around the corner on the way to the exit. Not in the least taken aback by her impertinent remark, Seiya only smiles to himself, turns and swiftly approaches Carrara and Shinichi with the air of somebody who is accustomed to take centre stage, the curly end of his long ponytail flying behind him like a black sail.

Trying to see the singer and actor through the eyes of a disinterested observer, Shinichi must admit that Ran was right and that the black-and-white photo in the foyer didn't do him justice. The photographer who took the portrait had — while trying to insert a non-existent sentimentality — failed to capture his expressive eyes and easy unaffected manner, resulting in a photo which emphasizes all of his striking features but neglects the things which make up the large part of his charisma. Instead of the dreamy soft look the camera must have caught during a rather uncommon moment, there is a lively and attentive expression in his face whose intangible charm and approachable attractiveness don't quite fit the role he is going to sing this season. In contrast to his voice and his face, however, his taste in clothing is so appallingly poor that it is almost excellent in its own right. Eccentrically clad in a glaring red silk dress shirt, adorned by an intricate pattern of black and white lines, and a pair of midnight-blue dress slacks with an open waistcoat of a startling blue complementing the colour of his eyes, Seiya Kou has happily finished off his colourful outfit with white gold earrings, a silvery blue satin band around his extraordinarily long ponytail and a green-yellow-orange-striped tie. There is also a long platinum chain around his neck which is almost completely hidden beneath the collar of his shirt and a broad platinum ring on the middle finger of his right hand. Whoever chose his opera attire for tonight, Shinichi is positive that person was not Ai.

Just like Shinichi is scanning him, Seiya's curious eyes seem to scrutinize Shinichi's face for a moment before he smiles at him while simultaneously acknowledging Carrara's presence with a nod.

"Seiya Kou," he introduces himself in Japanese and then, with a friendly glance at Carrara, effortlessly switches to colloquial Italian. "Shinichi Kudo, right? Of course I'd recognize the detective who brought down the Organization. I remember seeing you on the news... and Shiho has told me so much about you, too."

"We were classmates once," Shinichi casually remarks, shaking his outstretched hand which feels pleasantly dry and warm, showing no sign of fear or nervousness. "I'd never have expected her to work as your secretary, though. We lost touch with each other a few years ago. Where did you find her?"

"Stumbled over her during a visit at Haruka's house," Seiya answers cheerfully. "I couldn't believe my luck when she said she wouldn't mind going to Venice with me and take care of all the paperwork as long as I do the laundry."

Without noticeable malicious intent, his words stir memories of close friends and partners sharing domestic chores, reminding Shinichi of the time Hattori, Ai and he spent together in Paris at M Jean Black's house and giving him the odd sense of being replaced by someone else while he was away. Noticing that there is a pleasant scent about the one-time teen idol which is evocative of warm autumn nights — the fragrance of kinmoukusei? — Shinichi wonders whether Ai had taken a liking to his scent and his genial attitude immediately after meeting him. She has always reacted strongly to the aura and the scents of the people around her, Shinichi recalls, for the first time considering the possibility that there could be a grain of truth in Hino's assertion that Ai feels a bit attracted to her employer despite fighting off his cheeky displays of affection.

After introducing himself to Seiya and showing his badge, Carrara begins his interrogation by effusively flattering the singer's ego. He has heard so much about his beautiful voice and can't wait to listen to his heavenly singing now that he has finally heard his wonderful, wonderful speaking voice. Such exquisite timbre and smoothness, so extremely melodious and seductive. A voice like his in combination with such fantastic good looks... No wonder the women are all in love with him. It must be extremely difficult for his secretary to be in a purely platonic business relationship with a man who is that attractive, especially with all the rumours flying around—

"Thanks very much. You're investigating Haruka's death, right? I doubt Shiho and I can be of much help to you since she was asleep and I was away most of the time," Seiya uncaringly cuts him off without showing the slightest sign of embarrassment at Carrara's insinuation. "It's almost midnight and she seems very tired. What about letting us go home now and postpone the interview until tomorrow?" His gaze is still friendly and curious when it leaves Carrara's eyes to return to Shinichi's. But there is also something else in it which only Shinichi can discern, something watchful and unflinchingly decisive, almost challenging.

"I'm sorry we've let you wait for so long," Carrara readily apologizes, changing his approach. "I still need your address and telephone number, and I'd like to ask you a few routine questions about the happenings of tonight before you go. It will take us only a few minutes since Signora Tenoh seems to have died naturally, anyway. I hope you don't mind." He flashes the singer an engaging smile. "I'm sure you're very busy because of the musical tomorrow night. Maybe we don't even need to bother you tomorrow."

"We can talk in the café until Rei returns with the boat," Seiya suggests, heading back to his dressing room while Carrara and Shinichi are following him. "But afterwards I'd like to go home."

The door to the dressing room opens just when Seiya is about to turn the doorknob, and a fine-boned hand emerges from the darkness of the room to shove a bunch of keys into his face, along with a long leather jacket, a short beige trenchcoat, a lavender silk scarf, a mauve leather bag and a small handbag in the same blue as Seiya's eyes. Carrying all the things she dumped on him with the stoic attitude of someone who has to do it on a regular basis, Seiya Kou steps aside to let Miyano Shiho walk out of the room, almost colliding with Shinichi who has automatically taken a step towards the door to have a better look at her.

There is no jolt of surprise when their eyes meet, as if she, too, had known in advance that he would be there. But a moment of stunned silence stretches out between them during which she is only blinking at him in confusion, her eyes trailing from his neck (her eye level) to his lips, his eyes and his hair (slightly longer than three years ago) to his impeccable opera attire (black leather shoes, a silver-grey dinner suit, a white dress shirt and a black-mauve-striped bow tie)... while he is raising his brow at her cocktail dress (a relaxed-fit, cowl-neck short dress of a midnight blue so dark he had mistaken it for black when he saw her in the hall), the sight of the familiar chain which — almost invisible in the dim light — now fits her neck perfectly but conspicuously lacks a pendant, the small platinum bracelet around her wrist (a snug-fit model which is apparently not removable without a screwdriver), her black tights, naked arms, bare shoulders... her strangely soft gaze and her slightly ruffled hair... Taking in all the things which had been hidden from his view by the crowd and by her lavender scarf when he saw her in the hall — things which are totally uncharacteristic of her! — Shinichi recalls that the Miyano Shiho he knew had always been dressed in other people's clothes when they met, appearing rather tomboyish and casual whereas this woman is so feminine that she seems like a perfect stranger to him.

"Long time no see," she remarks, giving him her familiar nonchalant smile, a tiny gleam of mischievousness lightening up her eyes, and Shinichi realizes with a pang of nostalgia that her real voice as Miyano Shiho is the same as Haibara Ai's — more resonant but of the same timbre — and slightly different from the fake voice he had chosen when he decided to impersonate her.

m.

_End of Part One_

**AN:** That was a giant chapter, the longest until now. First I wanted to split it again, but then SN told me that she doesn't mind the length and that I should post it to get it out of the way since I've already written it, so I decided to keep the length instead of splitting it.

Anyway, feel free to PM me if there is something you don't understand or if you want to chat about DC. I'm holidaying these days. XD I'm a pretty blunt person and often put my foot in my mouth, but I usually don't deliberately insult other people. So, if I say/write something stupid, it's probably supposed to be a joke.

I'm not going to update this fic for about a month because my next updates will be for "Ghost at Twilight", which is a version of what might have happened if Ai had been in her adult form on the ship and had not disappeared after the downfall of the Organization.


	12. Part Two: Over three years already

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story (and who didn't even complain about having to beta a chapter which is longer than 8600 words!) :)**

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**12. Over three years already...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view_)

x.

"Over three years already," Shinichi responds in Italian. "And despite your promise to keep in touch, you never wrote to any of us."

Acutely aware of Carrara's eyes on him, Shinichi has intended to act out the scene of a normal reunion between old school friends who have just bumped into each other quite by chance while holidaying abroad. No strong feelings or raw emotion, only a pleasant "How do you do?" while suppressing the urge to pin her against the wall and ask her what in God's name she has been up to. But despite his conscious effort to feign indifference, his words sound to his own ears a bit like the reproach of a jilted lover turned friend whom she had abandoned when she went away.

Breaking off their eye contact, she lets her gaze wander to Seiya Kou who, in turn, casts her a brief sidelong glance before he closes the door to his dressing room and distractedly inserts the key into the lock without looking at it. There seems to be some sort of understanding between them, Shinichi thinks, as if she had told the singer about the reason why she never wrote to him.

"Four by next month," she corrects him, switching into Italian. "And I did write."

"You did?" he asks, astonished by the sincerity in her voice. If it was a lie, she must have perfected her impressive acting skills during the past years because it sounded absolutely truthful to his ears.

"Twice," she smiles, turning to Carrara to introduce herself. "Shiho Miyano."

"You've really written to me twice?" Shinichi exclaims in Japanese, realizing too late that Carrara is introducing himself to her and that he has broken one of the most basic social conventions by cutting in on them. To make matters worse, she has turned her attention to Carrara and completely ignored his question.

"But we really need to go home soon," she tells Carrara while following Seiya Kou into the backstage café where he, despite the bags and jackets in his arms, opens the door for her, "Seiya hasn't had a good night's sleep for weeks, and tomorrow night is the opening night of _The Phantom of the Opera_. He will sing like a frog if he doesn't get enough sleep," she gives Seiya a teasing smirk as she passes him at the door, "and he will look like a vampire if he doesn't go to bed before dawn."

"Looks aren't that important for the role, but we should really do something about me singing like a frog prince," the singer whispers in Japanese, pulling out a chair for her. Although his voice was so low it was barely audible, Shinichi's sharp ears have managed to pick up the whole sentence.

"Not here, frog princess," she smiles, settling herself comfortably into the chair he has pulled for her, and gently tugs at a strand of his long hair. Exactly the same gestures and facial expressions as four years ago, Shinichi observes, with the only differences that they aren't stuck in their child forms anymore, that he is now the player who has to guess the phrase (in all probability either "dubious employer-employee relationship", "friends with benefits" or "live-in lover" this time), and that there is no rule to prevent the actors onstage from cracking corny jokes which aren't even remotely funny.

"Kiss him and he will turn into a frog immediately," Shinichi viciously remarks, planting himself on the chair opposite her to continue their previous conversation. Resting his free hand on the back of her chair, Seiya Kou only flashes him a good-humoured grin and retorts: "That would unquestionably happen if you kissed me," whereupon Ai — much to Shinichi's astonishment — laughs.

"When did you write to me?" Shinichi queries in irritation, putting an end to the nonsense. She seems to have a soft spot for the dork because he amuses her with his juvenile sense of humour, drawing the laugh from her which she used to reserve for pet dogs. However, this is no time for flippancy, and Shinichi is not in the least interested in exchanging quips and pleasantries with a suspect in this situation.

"Not to you," she slowly shakes her head. "I wrote the Professor two letters. I did send you and the others my love, though."

"He never received any."

"They must have got lost somehow."

The dismissive wave of her hand and the air of finality with which she uttered the words would have made Shinichi's blood boil if it weren't for the almost imperceptible flicker of emotion in her eyes. So she really did write, after all, he thinks, or she lied and couldn't contact him for some justifiable reason he has yet to find out. At least she, too, is not as detached as she pretends to be, and the knowledge of this fact appeases him somewhat for the time being.

Throwing them an interested glance, Seiya Kou hangs the jackets and bags he is carrying on the coat rack while Carrara, who has been following them in silence until now, makes his presence known by seating himself on the chair between Ai and Shinichi and pulling a small bunch of papers out of his large pocket.

"So your position of a secretary involves putting Signor Seiya Kou to bed?" Carrara asks Ai pleasantly, earning a blush from her, a dark look from Seiya and an alarmed gaze from Shinichi.

"Yes," she fixes Carrara's eyes with a challenging smile before either Shinichi or Seiya can interject. "Much more than that, actually. I have to make sure that he sleeps like a baby. But I won't complain because he is such an attentive employer and I'm extremely well-paid."

Despite her friendly tone concealing the fury she undoubtedly feels, Shinichi knows from previous personal experience (he will never forget the incident with the chili!) that this little exchange is going to have serious repercussions for Carrara if he doesn't stop harassing her, a move so impertinent and moronic that Shinichi is convinced Carrara must have had a good reason for trying it. Leaning against the bar stool behind Ai, Seiya Kou seems to be thinking the same because his angry gaze has immediately turned into a gleeful smile, brightening up his countenance so drastically that he seems like a completely different person in Shinichi's eyes, before the smile, too, disappears when his gaze falls on Carrara's bunch of papers and he leaves the bar stool to install himself on the chair opposite the commissario.

"Shiho is in charge of my schedule, my finances and my lifestyle," Seiya calmly explains, proving all the people who called him hot-headed liars by adopting a conciliatory approach and staying perfectly composed and reasonable. "She even sorts out all the arrangements for my roles. My life would be extremely chaotic without her."

"I see," Carrara comments with growing interest in his eyes, indicating he has seen that Seiya Kou can very well control himself when he wants to. Carrara's intentionally inappropriate behaviour, added to his blunder in Hino's dressing room when Shinichi questioned Hino about her slow clock, strengthen Shinichi's suspicion that the officers Carrara talked with in the concert hall have provided Carrara with some useful bits of information about the singer which Carrara, as "time was running short", has yet to share with Shinichi. It must have been some damning evidence against Seiya in favour of Carrara's theory, maybe the witness account of Nadia Gorowitz or of somebody else (someone of the technical staff?) who understands Japanese and who has overheard Seiya's and Tenoh's quarrel. Carrara most probably read the files his officers handed him while Shinichi was distracted by Ran's account of Seiya's flirt with Alessandra DiGiorgio, the usher at the left entrance.

"Well," Seiya Kou directs his civil smile away from Carrara, towards Shinichi and back to Carrara again, "what would you like to know?"

"Just the happenings of tonight from your point of view," Carrara replies while Shinichi only contemplates the singer silently, taking note of his fearless eyes and the friendly mocking smile on his lips, an innate attitude to challenge and to rebel which must have been one of the reasons why Tenoh Haruka — a natural leader — couldn't abide him.

"Since Haruka was still alive during the second interval, I think you're interested in the time between eight and half-past eight, Haruka's usual thirty-minute delay before the last act of the opera," Seiya begins. "I had a drink with Makoto before I returned to my dressing room. But I have very good ears and can tell you for sure that nobody was in the corridor before Gentile knocked at Haruka's dressing room and begged Haruka to go on stage."

Jumping energetically to his feet, he proceeds to the fridge and looks inquisitively into it.

"I see Makoto has already emptied our bottle of Sherry," he sighs in mock disappointment, giving Shinichi a cordial smile. "It's a shame since we could have shared the rest of it." Turning to Ai, he adds: "Although I could open a new bottle... You don't mind, do you? Rei is going to drive us."

"And who is going to drive us from her place to ours after she goes home?" she threateningly knits her brows.

"You, of course," he grins, unimpressed by her severe look and her frown.

"No," she brushes him off, sounding almost as bossy as she was when she watched over the Professor's diet although there is a teasing edge in her voice. "You told me you already had a glass with Kino. That's enough."

"I only had one sip," Seiya protests, "Makoto knocked back the rest of my glass."

"Signora Kino can apparently tolerate a lot of alcohol," Carrara observes with a grin.

"She can drink anyone under the table," Seiya admits in genuine admiration while Ai explains: "She has an unbelievably high level of alcohol dehydrogenases. Not even Haruka was a match for her."

"So you returned to your dressing room immediately after talking to Kino?" Shinichi asks the singer, turning the conversation back to the case.

"Yes," Seiya absently replies. "Champagne, water or orange juice? Or Sherry? I can't drink with you, though."

"Water, please, if you don't have Stinger. Do you know what time it was?"

Wrapping her hands around her glass, Ai shoots Shinichi a warning glance before she nonchalantly takes a sip of her water.

"No Stinger," she tells him with a smile. "The only alcohol we have here is Sherry. That's the only wine you could tolerate although you never really liked it, if my memory serves me correctly."

"No, I don't know what time it was," Seiya says, pouring each of them a glass of mineral water after asking Carrara whether he preferred water or orange juice. "I don't wear a watch. But I think it was only a few minutes before I heard Gentile's steps in the corridor."

"You can hear his steps in the corridor through the closed door of your dressing room?" Shinichi raises a skeptical brow. Tenoh's dressing room is in the middle of the corridor directly under the staircase to Hino's room while Seiya's is at the end of the corridor. Luigi Gentile, who most probably came from the stage since it wouldn't make sense for him to leave the opera house through the main entrance and walk around the house to enter it again through the exit just to get to the backstage area, couldn't have passed Seiya's dressing room on his way.

"I assure you I can hear the sounds in the corridor very clearly when I'm in the café or in my dressing room even when the doors are closed," Seiya Kou flashes both Carrara and Shinichi an ironic smile. "Having excellent ears is sometimes a curse. I can also hear everything people say when they gossip about me even when I try not to pay attention to their ridiculous theories." Addressing Carrara, he wickedly adds: "I even heard somebody saying I should change my gender to suit Shiho's preference. But Shiho and Haruka were only friends. Just because they went out to enjoy a cup of coffee with each other from time to time doesn't mean that they were lovers, you know."

"But you two are?" Carrara asks him and Ai, trying the direct approach. "Why did Signora Tenoh object to your relationship if she didn't have any right to interfere with it?"

"As a good friend of Shiho's, she objected to us sharing an apartment because she said it would ruin Shiho's reputation," Seiya evasively answers, eyes flashing with anger at Carrara's question although his voice is steady and his demeanor perfectly calm.

"I'm fine with it, though," Ai shrugs. "Living in Venice alone would be much too expensive, and we like to keep each other company."

Contrary to her unemotional words, her face clouds over with sorrow so heartrending that Carrara averts his eyes and helplessly pretends to study his documents, apparently regretting his behaviour from earlier. And Shinichi himself, taken aback by the expression of longing with which she gazed at Seiya's face, has already been fooled by it when Seiya Kou's reaction gives her away. Bewildered by her reply, the singer has thrown her an inquiring glance which she has answered with a mischievous and reassuring smile, the same she had given Edogawa Conan before stepping on stage four years ago. Seeing that smile again, Shinichi almost expects her to wink and to whisper "Let's win this game" with the only difference that, this time, she won't be saying it to him.

He can still clearly remember their way home that autumn night four years ago, when the two of them were walking in front of Sonoko and Ran who were still marvelling at Shiratori-sensei's dress, the Chinese lanterns and the carefully tended lawn. Learn to feign sleep and you will be a brilliant actress, he remembers telling her, indicating the trophy in the Professor's hand. Their group had won, as expected, even though they had agreed not to do anything too scandalous for the sake of the children. Just a few facial expressions and little gestures which revealed a sense of closeness and belonging like holding hands or sharing the same cup of coffee. Those little things and the perfectly natural air with which she tucked his shirt into his trousers for him were enough to bring the right word to mind.

"That was a piece of cake," she had said, glowing with pride about their overwhelming victory without allowing herself to revel in it. "People always see what they want to see. Pretending to be lovers is easy. Being lovers and hiding it, on the other hand, would be a real challenge."

One probably gets accustomed to the intimacy, she had thought aloud. Taking so many things between themselves for granted, lovers don't notice that they are standing too close, touching each other too often, doing things they usually don't do to a normal friend even when they desperately try to hide their relationship from their surroundings.

The sight of the corner of a napkin in the right pocket of Seiya's trousers prompts Shinichi to make a quick movement of his hand as if he were chasing away a fly, knocking over Ai's glass in the process. With a single movement whose surprising swiftness reminds Shinichi of Tenoh's impressively fast scales during the first act of the opera, Seiya Kou's hand shoots forward to catch the glass before it falls over although a bit of the water still spills on Ai's dress.

Frowning at the water stain on her breast in annoyance (she has always been exceedingly particular about her spotless appearance), Ai automatically puts her hand into Seiya's pocket and pulls out his napkin to wipe herself while the singer, realizing Shinichi's intentions, throws him a half-admiring and half-amused glance, hiding his lower face behind his hand as if he were trying to suppress his laughter.

Wrong reaction, Shinichi thinks. Things would have been as plain as day if he had wiped her with his napkin or if she had taken the napkin and he had been taken aback by her gesture. Her reaction was the worst possible. Seiya's laugh, however, is something which doesn't fit into either of Shinichi's theories.

So what are they? Friends who pretend to be lovers or lovers who pretend to be friends? Seiya's masquerade is apparently the first and hers is obviously the latter, as if they were, for some obscure reason, acting out two different phrases because they had opened two different envelopes by accident. The only thing which Shinichi knows for sure is that both of them are excellent actors giving an outstanding performance of the roles they have chosen, playing a game they are most probably going to win in the end. And even though this is not at all about winning or losing to Shinichi, it strangely infuriates him that he can't tell which type of charade they are playing, as if for him, this question is one of tremendous importance.

x.

**AN: **Short chapter as promised in "Ghost at Twilight". Since my chapters have become too long, I'm trying to update faster now and post separate scenes.) Life has become very busy again although I still try to update regularly.

If you're wondering why Shinichi thought of pinning Shiho against the wall, it was an in-joke because Shinichi behaved pretty violently towards a grown-up Ai in OVA 9. XD

And who guessed what Shinichi meant when he mentioned the Stinger? XD


	13. Part Two: Commissario Lele Carrara, the

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story (and who didn't even complain about having to beta a chapter which is longer than 8600 words!) :)**

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**13. Commissario Lele Carrara, the only...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view_)

x.

Commissaro Lele Carrara, the only dispassionate observer of the scene, is immensely intrigued by the unexpected love triangle which has just manifested itself in front of his eyes. Scolding himself for not noticing it earlier, he grudgingly admits that he ought to have known it the moment he saw how Shinichi Kudo reacted to her name. Despite joking about Kudo looking as if he were about to faint and wondering whether she had been his "secretary" as well, Lele didn't really give his own theory a second thought at that time. When she came out of Seiya Kou's dressing room, however, he instantly knew that there must have been some kind of history between them, something emotionally intense which ended badly, because there is no way a person like Shinichi Kudo would lose his cool at the sight of an old friend. She, too, has demonstratively tried to keep him at a distance, snubbing him mercilessly while stealing furtive glances at his face whenever he got distracted by her boyfriend, and Lele is positive that — if it weren't for Seiya Kou and himself — their reunion would have been quite different, although he can't really imagine how it would have been.

"Sorry about that," Shinichi Kudo hypocritically apologizes to her, indicating her glass with a wry smile. "I thought I've seen a fly."

"Never mind. You've always had two left hands and poor eyesight," she nonchalantly waves his apology away with an insult which almost resembles an endearment when one doesn't pay attention to her words but only to her tone.

From the look of things, the two of them must have been either lovers or at least entangled in a complicated platonic romance which abruptly ended when she went abroad four years ago. Apparently, the letters got lost, life happened, and now, after successfully moving on, they run into each other again while holidaying in Venice with their respective current partners. What a fateful reunion!

There also seem to be some lingering feelings beneath the resentment, Lele thinks, and if they were both unattached, he would bet that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow at the latest they would be waking up in the same hotel room. But as things are, his lovely fiancée (the dark-haired girl is most probably his fiancée or girlfriend even though, for an unknown reason, the detective denies that he was the one who gave her the ring she wore on the wrong hand) and her excessively attractive boyfriend (whom she undeniably loves, judging from the expression in her eyes whenever she looks at him), added to the fact that Shinichi Kudo won't be staying in Venice for long, are formidable obstacles to their happy ending.

"But it's lucky that you knew exactly where to find a napkin," the detective remarks in a sharp voice, ignoring both Seiya Kou's and Lele's presence. Without doubt, he is the type of man who forgets himself when he is really jealous.

"I knew where to find it because it was me who put it in there," she dryly replies while Seiya Kou, in a well-meant attempt to take the innuendo out of her sentence, lightly adds: "Shiho is even responsible for the contents of my pockets" before he loses control of himself and bursts out laughing at the unintentional drollness of his own comment.

Oddly enough, the singer is the most difficult to make out although, at first glance, he seemed like the most open and approachable of the three, Lele observes. Seiya Kou has been perfectly amiable throughout the whole affair, showing no sign of jealousy or possessiveness. On the contrary, he seems to acknowledge the past between Shinichi Kudo and his girlfriend with the same laid-back attitude with which he deals with the knowledge that he is currently suspected of murder.

"What's so funny?" she inquiringly raises her brow at him.

"Sorry," he gently says, lips curved up in a mocking smile, winking at her with a mischievious gleam in his eyes.

It's difficult to tell whether he is really innocent or simply so ruthless and self-assured that he doesn't fear either Lele or Kudo although it is clearly evident that, despite his lack of jealousy, he is passionately devoted to her. If it weren't for Shinichi Kudo's trap and the reaction of the girl, he would undoubtedly have kept up his elaborate pretence; and by the end of the interrogation, Lele would most probably have believed his tall story that they are only good friends sharing an apartment while enjoying a harmless little flirt, passing her off as his secretary who he is unhappily in love with to keep his female fans away. He has hidden their relationship well behind many layers of make-believe and lies, and Lele hazily wonders whether he would stop at murder to protect her.

x.

Inwardly, Shiho is incandescent with rage at each of the three men, starting from the impertinent commissario (who dared to openly insult her and whose presence prevents her from behaving like herself) to Kudo (who — despite all the things they went through with each other before, at and on Pandora's Box — didn't even bat an eyelid when he unscrupulously spilled water all over her to satisfy his curiosity) to Seiya, the traitor who apparently changed sides the moment she took his napkin and who is now cheekily grinning at her, enjoying himself at her expense. Why he couldn't even pretend to be angered at Kudo's gesture is beyond her comprehension.

Apparently, all the three of them have set themselves the goal of antagonizing her tonight. And since she can't do much about the first two in this situation, Shiho decides to take out her anger on the last one, flashing him an ominous look which tells him very clearly that she has taken notice of his betrayal and that he is going to suffer the consequences for his insolent behaviour later because there is no way that this won't have any repercussions.

Well, at least that's what Seiya thinks what Shiho is thinking. And since Seiya trusts his ability to read her thoughts or at least most of them, he winces at all the things she might do to him if he doesn't manage to appease her before they are home. The last time he got under her skin by giving a few of her APAH painkillers to Rei-chan she had been furious, launching into a tirade about the dangers of using an unknown drug personalized for someone else's requirements and about how he should never, ever, rummage through her medicine chest again, much less steal her painkillers without asking her beforehand. And when he rebelliously dismissed it with a grin and readily promised her to behave himself without really meaning it, she had punished him by mixing something into his coffee that knocked him out for a whole day, causing him to miss a rehearsal and fight sleep during his own performance. A woman who would go as far as ruining his concert for a practical joke is an accident waiting to happen, Taiki has told him. And while Seiya believes that Taiki, once again, is absolutely right (just like Taiki was probably right when he foresaw that she would wrap Seiya round her little finger and break his heart some day), Seiya can't deny that her short-tempered and difficult character is one of the many things about her which fascinate him.

Letting his eyes roam over the table, Seiya wonders why they all seem so subdued and why he seems to be the only one who found the incident with the water hilarious. It was such a great idea in its simplicity, and the promptness with which Kudo put his thought into action drew Seiya's admiration because none of them had anticipated it. Seiya has always appreciated a truly formidable opponent and, while he naturally prefers winning, doesn't mind losing to such an opponent once in a while. If she weren't such a bad loser, Shiho would have acknowledged that she has been thoroughly defeated by her friend and his accurate judgment of her fastidious character, utilizing her almost neurotic sense of order (something Seiya is still fighting against after all these years) to throw her off balance and induce her to give up her pretence. But the most funny thing about Kudo's wonderful test was that, in the end, when it comes to the nature of Seiya and Shiho's relationship, it actually didn't prove anything.

The only thing it really proved was that Shiho knew he had a napkin, Seiya thinks, wondering what type of woman Kudo knows. The women Kudo knows are probably extremely well-behaved, distant or shy towards their male friends, the very opposite to the brazen women Seiya knows because Seiya can immediately think of at least three or four other women who would also have borrowed his napkin even though there hasn't been anything between him and them. Minako-chan, for example, would have done it without further ado or — and this is even more likely — ask him to wipe her instead. Rei-chan, Odango and Shizuka-san certainly wouldn't have hesitated to take a napkin out of his pocket either, and it is a mystery to Seiya why Kudo believes that Shiho wouldn't take a napkin out of the pocket of a good friend. In Seiya's eyes, Shiho has never been the shy type although, now that Seiya is thinking about it, he must admit that she did have an odd aversion to touching other people when they first met.

"Why do you keep a napkin in your pocket?" Kudo asks him.

"I don't know," he answers truthfully. "Shiho put it into my pocket."

Very funny, says Kudo's glare. If you don't want to tell me the truth, I'm going to find it out on my own.

But it is the honest truth, Seiya thinks. Shiho and he often sneak random things into each other's pockets and like to steal each other's stuff (with the exception of APAH and her precious necklace from Kudo, the only two things of hers he is not allowed to touch). Seiya knows very well that his talent of bringing out her childish side and enjoying himself almost anywhere at any time is one of the few reasons Shiho is still living with him in spite of his incurable recklessness and his ability to irk her to no end (which usually happens when he is enjoying himself too much at her expense or when he decides to play a prank on someone and chooses her as his next victim). Tonight he has enjoyed himself, too, because their little charade in front of Carrara has allowed him to tease her endlessly by treating her like his little princess, something she would never let him do to her without making a sarcastic remark when they are alone.

"What did you do before talking to Signora Kino?" Carrara asks, giving him a grave and fatherly look as if he feels sorry for this youthful delinquent he will have to arrest soon. Dream on, dear commissario, Seiya thinks, dream on.

"I visited Rei in her dressing room. We didn't talk for long, though," he says, suppressing a yawn because he wants to appear perfectly polite and amiable tonight, showing himself from his best side to Shiho's best friend and unrequited love from four years ago.

"Do you know what time it was?" Kudo asks, fixing him with steely greyish blue eyes that seem to peer into the very depth of his soul.

"About a quarter past eight," he replies, not at all intimidated by the skeptical looks both Carrara and Kudo are giving him. It's not his fault if they can't believe the truth, Seiya thinks in amusement — disregarding the thought that, in a way, it is his fault — and he is the last person interested in assisting them with their investigation.

"How come you know the time if you don't wear a watch?" Kudo coolly asks, making Seiya wonder whether the sleuth is always so hostile towards a suspect or whether he has developed a personal aversion against him. If Shiho hadn't shown him her cage-shaped pendant and told him about Kudo's total indifference to her charms (It seemed they were in the same boat, she had said, because her detective had a childhood crush he had wanted to marry since elementary school), Seiya would have been under the impression that Kudo is jealous of him.

"The clock on Rei's dressing room table said it was eight fifteen," Seiya shrugs, dismissing the idea that Kudo might be in love with her as absurd since it doesn't make sense to him. After all, the absent-minded private eye failed to fetch her and another friend of his from "Pandora's Box No. 1" (Seiya has given numbers to the ship, the cabin and the computer because he found the fact that they all shared the same name confusing!) while going for a walk with his childhood love, according to both Haruka-san and Ami-chan. And even though Seiya can understand that one forgets the time when one is reunited with the girl one has been in love with for one's whole life, he doubts that Kudo had any romantic feelings for Shiho (or Haibara, as Kudo always called her) because — in a life and death situation — he obviously forgot about her over another girl.

In all probability, Haruka-san was wrong when she claimed that there had been strong feelings on both sides, and Kudo only dislikes the thought that Shiho seems to be cohabiting with a jerk who takes advantage of the fact that she can't afford an apartment in Venice and misuses her situation to corrupt her innocence because Kudo, as a good friend of hers, feels responsible for her well-being.

Satisfied with the conclusion, Seiya turns on his charm and directs his nicest smile at the detective who, being the stern and mistrustful type, doesn't return it.

"You didn't look at the clock in the café when you were having a drink with Kino. Why did you look at the clock in Hino's dressing room?" Kudo asks, trying to trap him with the reversed order, which Seiya, once again, finds vaguely amusing.

"I looked at it because I wondered when Haruka would stop reading and finally decide to grace the audience with her presence," he flippantly answers, taking a sip of his water after secretly giving Shiho, who is watching him with worried eyes, another suggestive wink, one of the type that never fails to make her blush although, this time, he can't tell whether she is blushing because she is embarrassed or because she is angry at him. Pulling himself together, Seiya tells himself to hold on a bit longer so that she doesn't need to be ashamed of her "employer" although the memory of her groaning "That's the stupidest excuse you could have come up with because now people will think that you're sleeping with me and paying me!" threatens to crack him up. She had been fretting for days after Makoto-chan's and Minako-chan's surprise visit until he managed to soothe her with the philosophy that reputation was _"an idle and most false imposition"_ and that life was actually much more pleasant when you were no longer concerned about it.

"So she read a lot?" Kudo asks curtly, in a voice which could freeze the Sahara. Perhaps he is still irked about the lost letters and feels like taking his anger out on somebody? It's a pity that Seiya can't tell Kudo that Shiho hadn't only written those letters but also sent them long mails every week without knowing that the person who answered them was neither her beloved Professor Agasa nor (her equally beloved!) Kudo Shinichi.

"Compulsively," Seiya unscrupulously lies since they clearly don't believe him when he tells the truth. "I know only few people who are as well-read as she was."

One of Seiya's many talents — nobody needs to tell Seiya Kou that he has a myriad of talents since self-confidence is the last thing he lacks — is his ability to slip into any role and make even himself believe anything he says, no matter how outrageous the lie. He seldom makes use of this ability when he is not in front of the camera or onstage. However, he belongs to the people who show grace under pressure and fight tedium with mischief. And while he has been under intense pressure during the past hours, this interrogation feels like an anticlimax to the evening and has begun to bore him.

"Did you have to read a lot at Infinity?" Kudo asks Shiho in passing, in the same casual tone in which he mentioned Stinger a few minutes ago. Although he is as affable as a brick, the man would make a great actor if he only had the aspiration, Seiya distractedly thinks while wishing for Rei-chan to call him at once so that Shiho and he can finally excuse themselves and go home.

"Only the literature students," she replies with a tiny smile, apparently still impressed at how Kudo has found out about Stinger and Infinity during such a short time (or didn't he discover it tonight but remembered it because he read about it in Pandora's Box No. 2?). Noticing in dismay that she can't take her eyes off Kudo's face, Seiya inwardly sighs and decides to distract himself from the painful reality that she still has feelings for Kudo by imagining her naked.

"Since Haruka was an athlete, nobody forced her to read anything," he can hear her voice telling Kudo before he feels her foot kicking at his shin and meets her warning glare which startles him out of his pleasant day dream.

"And you were an athlete at Infinity, too?" Kudo gives him an innocent — though still glacial — smile and adds in a poor attempt to distract him from the deception: "You look like one, and you have great reflexes."

"No, I wasn't," Seiya replies, slightly irked at the realization that both Kudo and Carrara assume that he is a vain idiot. Deciding to fit perfectly into the pigeonhole they have designed for him, he cheerily laughs, giving a brilliant performance of the good-humoured airhead they all want him to be: "I'm a natural athlete, actually. But since I knew I'd never have passed their IQ test, I never dared to apply for Infinity."

"I didn't know one could apply for Infinity," Kudo leans towards Shiho, eyes bright with curiosity and excitement. "Wasn't it an exclusive academy at which you had to wear black school uniforms and drink Stinger during your black-tie parties and which you could only attend if you belonged to the few chosen ones?" They shamelessly lock eyes with each other for a moment, ignoring their surroundings completely.

No, one had to wear starched white shirts and drink mineral water during the striped-bow-tie parties and it was boring as hell, Seiya thinks, no longer inclined to ask Kudo to share a bottle of Sherry with him.

"You could always apply for it," Shiho shoots him another worried and warning glance, "although the final decision usually rested with Professor Tomoe. Haruka was actually one of the people who applied for it... And the school uniforms weren't black! Professor Tomoe strongly objected to that. They were green and brown."

"Green and brown," Seiya remembers the sharp, slightly broken voice of Professor Tomoe at his ear while gazing curiously after the retreating figure of the girl who, at that time, wasn't more to him than a white lab coat in a rather dubious-looking black crowd. "The colours of the trees and the earth and the last thing that stayed in or flew out of the jar. Will you join us and wear it for me? Or do you think that black would be a more suitable colour for you at Infinity?"

x.

**AN: **Yay, short chapter this time. And SN betaed it immediately despite work stress and lack of sleep. :D


	14. Part Two: There are few people

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story (or in her words: "live-reading it on MSN") for me. :)**

x.

_FS_

x.

x.** ENCOUNTER in VENICE **x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**14. There are few people**...

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

There are few people in the world who can baffle Shinichi and give him headaches. Ai, much to his annoyance, can do it well enough to give him a migraine. Her friend or boyfriend (or something in between?) is the same, changing like a chameleon from one minute to the next for no apparent reason. Within less than half an hour, Seiya Kou has acted out the accessible celebrity when he introduced himself, the perfect gentleman when he opened the door for his secretary, the teasing lover when he pulled out Ai's chair and indirectly asked her for a kiss, the judicious diplomat when he decided to keep his (undoubtedly quick) temper in check despite Carrara's rudeness, the innocent and supportive suspect while answering to Carrara's inquiries — a role he kept even when Shinichi implied that he had doubts about Seiya's claim to have visited Hino before talking to Kino. Without attempting to correct Shinichi's reversed order of the two visits, the singer has retained his air of nonchalance, answering all of Shinichi's questions patiently without the slightest hint of tension. As Shinichi already suspected, Seiya Kou can slip into any role with ease; and in view of his wide-eyed innocence, a less experienced investigator would have been convinced that the events of tonight were not in the least related to him.

Acutely sensitized to crime and mystery, however, Shinichi can detect a certain watchfulness (a state of heightened awareness?) beneath Seiya's untroubled demeanour and a deliberate provocation in his eyes whenever they meet Shinichi's and Carrara's gaze. Smiling pleasantly at Shinichi with the ghost of a mocking grin in his eyes and on his lips, bursting into laughter at his own jokes and giving Ai unmistakably suggestive winks which madden Shinichi more than a raised middle finger towards himself would have done, Seiya seems as certain of his victory over Shinichi and the police as a meerkat that has just escaped an eagle's attack and is now sitting in its snug little burrow, sticking its puckish head out of the hole to watch the bird circling over its abode.

Every few seconds Shinichi can catch Ai stealing curious, somewhat worried glances at Seiya's face, a behaviour which mystifies him as much as her special attachment to the singer. Although they haven't known each other for longer than a few minutes, Seiya has already managed to push all of Shinichi's buttons with his incessant flirting (does he really have to do it so blatantly even during an interrogation?), his irritating look of sardonic amusement, his finely modulated tone of voice (whose ironic undertone makes Shinichi's blood boil) and his infuriatingly angelic smile. It is easy for Shinichi to understand why Tenoh Haruka couldn't abide the roguish brat, and when he noticed Ai kicking her so-called employer under the table (couldn't they find a better excuse for living under the same roof than passing her off as his secretary?), Shinichi could only suppress his grin with difficulty.

Would she have kicked him if they were really lovers just because he was devouring her with his eyes? Certainly not. They are friends pretending to be lovers, as he thought, because if they were really lovers, there would be no reason for Seiya Kou to continue denying their relationship even after she has spoilt their charade by taking his napkin. As expected, her acting skills have considerably improved over the years, and if it hadn't been for Seiya who keeps throwing her resigned and longing glances as if he were suffering from an unrequited love, Shinichi would have been completely fooled by her acting. Admittedly, their indisputable closeness and their outrageous flirting still shocks Shinichi somewhat, but their romantic friendship is somehow easier for him to accept than their love affair would have been.

Hence his foul mood has considerably improved when he forces a smile at the singer and — despite knowing from Kino that Seiya went to Juuban high school with her, Aino Minako and Chiba Usagi — asks: "And you were an athlete at Infinity, too? You look like one, and you have great reflexes."

It wasn't even a lie as Seiya does have the appearance of an athlete or — to be precise — of a dancer, nothing unnatural for a singer and actor who regularly appears in musicals. However, Shinichi's benevolent tone and the reserve in his smile have not been lost on anybody but Seiya at the table, judging from Carrara's skeptical sidelong glance and the expression of disbelief flitting across Ai's face.

"No, I wasn't," Seiya laughs. "I'm a natural athlete, actually. But since I knew I'd never have passed their IQ test, I never dared to apply for Infinity."

He looked and sounded so perfectly honest that Shinichi couldn't detect even the slightest indication of a lie and might have accepted his assertion at face value if it hadn't been for the exasperated expression in Ai's eyes. But after seeing her reaction, Shinichi is certain that Seiya knows about Infinity's link to the Organization (a fact Ai is also aware of) and that he only pretended to be clueless to mock Shinichi or to tease Ai.

"I didn't know one could apply for Infinity," Shinichi leans towards her with interest. "Wasn't it an exclusive academy at which you had to wear black school uniforms and drink Stinger during your black-tie parties and which you could only attend if you belonged to the few chosen ones?" Expectantly fixing her unreadable teal eyes in a vain attempt to find the answer to his indirect questions, Shinichi can see in his peripheral vision that neither Carrara nor Seiya show any sign of recognition at his allusion to the Organization. Given the circumstances, however, he suspects that only Carrara's ignorance is genuine while Seiya's is feigned.

For a moment, Ai only meets his gaze in silence before an appreciative smile flickers across her face and she turns to Seiya Kou again. However, the singer seems lost in thought and only looks up from his glass when she has already averted her eyes.

"You could always apply for it," she tells Shinichi while throwing Seiya another worried glance, "although the final decision usually rested with Professor Tomoe. Haruka was actually one of the people who applied for it... And the school uniforms weren't black! Professor Tomoe strongly objected to that. They were green and brown."

Apparently, the mad professor was one of the few codename members who rebelled against the Organization's dress code and put his own code of ethics over the Organization's rules, an attitude which must have been a thorn in the side of the Organization's seven highest members, and Shinichi wonders why Professor Tomoe alias Stinger was not eliminated immediately after he burnt his academy down.

"Were you and Tenoh classmates?" Shinichi asks Ai, deciding to postpone their talk about Infinity until later when they are alone.

"No," she answers, walking over to the bar to hang Seiya's wet napkin on a hook next to the coffee machine, "but of course I knew her because she was very famous at school." Turning to Seiya Kou, she asks in a deadpan voice: "Or should I try to auction it off instead? I wonder how much your fans will pay me if I can convince them that it was once in your trouser pocket."

There it is again, that teasing voice Shinichi still knows so well from her time as Haibara Ai. In a way, she has always been a casual flirt who carelessly broke the hearts of the little boys who took her teasing serious. This time, however, Seiya only gives her a faraway smile and half-heartedly remarks "You're such a greedy girl" before he takes a sip of his water with an almost melancholic expression in his eyes. His mood seems to have changed somewhat after Shinichi mentioned Infinity although, in view of his acting skills, Shinichi can't tell whether his sadness is acted or real.

"One of us needs to pay attention to the practical aspects of life, after all," Ai smiles before she returns to the table, brushing gently against Seiya's arm when she passes him, and fixes her troubled gaze on his face again, effortlessly swapping her role of the secret lover for the role of the caring wife.

As if it wanted to rescue Shinichi from their mawkish little performance, Carrara's phone suddenly rings. It is "Andrea", the medical examiner, as Shinichi can deduce from the various snippets of the conversation he can make out although Carrara has left the table for the bar. Judging from Carrara's alarmed expression, Andrea doesn't bring good news. An unexpected problem has occurred in the meantime because somebody (an influential friend of Tenoh?) "opposes to the autopsy" and has called Andrea personally to ask him "whether an autopsy is really unavoidable," threatening him with "legal proceedings" if he doesn't "put off" the autopsy until they have talked to "Gallo", who is apparently Carrara's "superior".

"So, what are you going to do now?" Carrara gravely asks and — as the incorruptible Andrea replies that he will perform the autopsy immediately if Carrara sends him Tenoh's corpse before Gallo can interfere — ends the phone call with a grim but satisfied "Thank you."

Meanwhile, both Seiya Kou and Ai have been following Carrara's phone call with unconcealed interest although neither of them betray any visible sign of emotion at the outcome of the talk. Once again Shinichi can't help but wonder why they have gone to such great length to look and behave like a couple while denying it at the same time. Even now their fingers are touching slightly while they both are cupping their respective glasses; and they both turn their faces inquiringly towards Shinichi when they notice his gaze on them as if they had already rehearsed this scene.

"Please excuse me for a minute," Carrara throws Shinichi a meaningful glance and quickly leaves the café. Through the door Carrara has left ajar, Shinichi can hear his steps gradually recede into the distance as he walks in the direction of the stage and opens the door to Tenoh's dressing room where, in all probability, the sullen attendants in white are still guarding Tenoh's corpse.

"So Tenoh was a friend of yours?" Shinichi asks in Japanese, addressing Ai who is now leisurely sipping at her water as if the three of them were old classmates who had got together in this café for a chat and a drink. There are innumerable other questions he would have preferred to ask. But as he doesn't know how much she has told Seiya Kou about her past and whether the singer can be trusted, he decides to save his questions for later when they are alone.

"Sort of," she murmurs a non-committal reply, regarding Seiya who has begun to tap a rhythm on his glass with a rare genuine smile. In the course of time, Shinichi has grown used to Haibara Ai's face and even the annoyed expression that frequently flitted across it, the slight furrow between her brows and the way she could frown, wrinkle her nose and curl her lips at the same time. Yet nothing is more startling than the sudden change in her features when she smiles. And it strikes him as unbelievable that she can still smile like that even though a close friend of hers just died.

First of all, the Ai Shinichi knew didn't belong to the class of people who can easily recover from the death of someone close to them. Moreover, "sort of" is certainly not the answer he would have expected from her if Tenoh Haruka and she had been friends. Apparently, her feelings for Tenoh are considerably cooler than her frequent meetings with Tenoh would suggest; and it is probably reasonable to assume that, as a companion, she prefers Seiya Kou for whom she has an inexplicable weakness.

"Was Tenoh a friend of yours, too?" Shinichi asks Seiya.

"Sort of," the singer gives him a very fine smile, watching him attentively with remarkably intelligent eyes. He has imitated Ai's tone of voice perfectly, copying her pronunciation and her personal inflection with all its subtle nuances and barely discernible pauses. Perplexed about the reason why Seiya would suddenly copy her reply, Shinichi would have believed that the singer was showing off his acting skills if it had not seemed perfectly natural, more habitual than deliberate.

"Kino said Tenoh complained of headaches this evening," Shinichi mentions in passing.

"Ah, did she," Seiya comments flatly while Ai visibly pales. Before his eyes, Shinichi can see Seiya Kou generously handing Tenoh Haruka a handful of APAH with the words that "Shiho-chan" — Shinichi has no doubt that the cheeky brat calls her "Shiho-chan" — prefers them to normal painkillers because her migraine would always miraculously disappear after taking them. Perhaps the irresponsible fool didn't even plan to kill her in the first place, and the "quarrel" was only a reparable tiff between two acquaintances who were too alike to tolerate each other.

"Did you give her the painkillers?" Shinichi asks Seiya directly since the singer is either deliberately obtuse or really too dense for nuances. Undecided about whether he should call them "APAH" (maybe Ai doesn't want Seiya to know their name), "Miyano-san's painkillers" (that would be too formal), "Shiho-san's painkillers" (it still sounds weird to his ears) or "Miyano's painkillers" (he has an irrational aversion to calling Ai "Miyano Shiho" in her presence), Shinichi makes a mental note to refer to APAH as "the painkillers" in the future.

Listening to the sound of footsteps and foreign voices echoing through the deserted corridor with interest (it seems Carrara is on the way back to the café while the attendants are noisily carting the stretcher with Tenoh's corpse out of the dressing room), Seiya takes an instant to contemplate his answer.

"No," he says levelly, "I didn't visit her after I returned. We met for the last time before the first act in the corridor."

He looks and sounds completely sincere, solemnly fastening his grave gaze on Shinichi's eyes. The puzzling guy goes through a personality switch every few minutes, and Shinichi has a strong suspicion that he is such a convincing actor because he can completely forget himself in a role.

"What about meeting up afterwards to talk?" Shinichi suggests, smiling at Ai with a slight nod in the direction of the door where Carrara can reappear at any moment. "There are bars open until two a.m."

"But tomorrow is the opening night of _The Phantom of the Opera_," she stubbornly replies, glancing at Carrara who has just come through the door, and continues in Italian: "As I said, Seiya really needs a good night's sleep for once."

In a normal situation, Shinichi would have played along and adjusted himself to their game despite its silliness. One usually doesn't ask a woman to go out at night for a drink in front of her boyfriend without including him in the invitation. And if he had asked the question in Italian, she wouldn't have been able to accept it in front of Carrara since they need to keep up appearances. But her deliberate switching to Italian — which made the meaning of his question evident for Carrara — and Seiya's gracious "Since we've already stayed here for so long, I don't think the two hours really matter" (what kind of idiot would invite himself to a meeting of old friends who obviously prefer to talk in private?) cause something in Shinichi to snap.

"I'm sure you need as much sleep as you can get to be in shape for the opening night," he uncaringly puts a damper on Seiya's enthusiasm and then turns to Ai: "But since that doesn't have anything to do with you, let's have a drink together somewhere afterwards to do some catching up."

x.

It seems in the few minutes Lele was absent, Shinichi Kudo has already begun to hit on the girl regardless of her boyfriend. The young detective is more passionate and irrational than he looks, Lele observes in surprise, and like many other people of his generation, Shinichi Kudo obviously suffers from the need of chasing after instant gratification.

A moment of tense silence descends upon the three of them after Kudo's outrageous proposal (all of them know he didn't mean to have a drink in the literal sense of word when he asked her to go out for a drink with him alone!) while Lele unobtrusively settles himself on his chair for fear of disturbing this intriguing love drama whose end he cannot guess. The gloves are off, thrown by Shinichi Kudo with unexpected vigour and force, and Lele vaguely wonders whether Seiya Kou will punch Kudo now for his attempt of snatching his lover away from him right in front of his eyes. His famous hot-headedness cannot have been only a rumour, and his lean figure and staggeringly fast reflexes indicate a born fighter who is not accustomed to lose.

To Lele's stupefied amazement, however, the singer doesn't even look irritated although he has dropped his mischievous and cheery manner for an attitude which is more mature and serious. His girlfriend is visibly confused, as one would expect, because Kudo's overzealous behaviour has put her into a rather precarious position.

"Well," Seiya Kou breaks the silence with a thoughtful glance at his girlfriend. "If you two would rather do the catching up between yourselves, just give me a call and I'll fetch you from wherever you want after you're done."

How incredibly foolish, Lele thinks, moved by his unconditional love for her and his implicit (though probably misplaced) trust. What a catastrophically stupid thing to say to a fickle woman who is torn between the two men she loves. Women like her only feel desirable when they are with a man who can convince them through intense jealousy that he is madly in love with her. And as much as Lele likes Seiya Kou for his good humour and his saintlike patience, Lele doubts that the naive singer will manage to keep her for longer than a few days in view of Shinichi Kudo's fighting spirit and passion.

"Never mind," Kudo says. "You need your sleep for the opening night. I'm going to bring her home."

Completely preoccupied with the fascinating love triangle at the table, Lele has almost forgotten that Shinichi Kudo's fiancée must be sleeping in their shared hotel room at the moment. The chances of finding a room in Venice at this hour is practically nonexistent. And since it is out of the question that Shinichi Kudo would take his lost love to his hotel and introduce her to his fiancée (now Lele finally understands why Kudo was so eager to get rid of the dark-haired girl in the first place!), the detective only meant to have a drink with Shiho Miyano, an innocent face-to-face conversation without either of their present partners disturbing them.

And yet, now that Lele is thinking about it, he realizes Venice has an abundance of dark lanes and private places; and young lovers probably don't mind the weather if they are really desperate...

"No, I'm actually tired," she replies, evading Kudo's burning gaze with obvious bewilderment in her eyes. "I'd rather go to bed as soon as possible. Let's postpone it until another time."

Let's postpone it, she said... While the girl naturally feels sorry for her boyfriend for the public humiliation Kudo callously puts him through, she obviously cannot bring herself to turn down Shinichi Kudo's offer in a more decisive fashion. The detective belongs to the few lucky perfect people in the world who don't seem to have any visible flaws although, in Lele's opinion, he needs to learn how to maintain a certain standard of personal conduct. One doesn't try to hook up with a woman in the presence of her boyfriend even when the two of them are hiding their relationship from the public. Even if she was the love of his life, a decent man would have been more patient and waited until he can talk to her alone.

"If my memory serves me right, you were always a night owl," Shinichi Kudo remarks, not even trying to conceal the fact that they were once lovers anymore.

"I still am," she declares, turning her face towards her boyfriend with a mischievous gleam in her eyes, "but you know... I'd rather be a night owl at home."

x.

From the faces of the other people at the table, Seiya draws the inference that Shiho's last remark has thrown both of them off balance (confusing commissario Carrara because he obviously expected her to run off with Kudo and shocking Kudo because he hasn't expected such an explicit statement).

That realization wouldn't pose a problem for Seiya at all if she hadn't thrown him off balance, too... Why she had to do this, he doesn't know. Haven't they worked out their roles together down to the smallest detail? He is supposed to be pursuing her with little to no success while she is supposed to be his good friend whom he adores and passes off as his secretary as an excuse for living with her in his apartment; and they've played this charade together so often before that they can do it in their sleep by now. A little bit of playful flirting (a sort of charade in a charade) matches their roles somewhat because of his scandalous reputation and the phenomenally stupid excuse he gave Minako-chan when Shiho — unaware of Minako-chan's and Makoto-chan's surprise visit — sleepily walked out of his bedroom in her skimpy transparent nightdress, but certainly not more than that. So why has she changed the rules and pretends to be pursuing him instead? Keep up the pretense no matter what, was what she said... Perhaps she has altered the rules because she has noticed that he has grown tired of this eternal pretending and would love to drop the whole game of hide-and-seek altogether if it weren't for her. At any rate, Shiho must have a sensible reason for acting like she does, just like he has his reasons for adding slight changes to his part. Despite all her worried glances, she has tried to adjust herself to his acting. Hence — despite his confusion — Seiya is dutifully keeping up the pretense, trying to censor even the thoughts which don't match his role, and furiously blushes at her like a guy who has been unhappily pining after her for years would do after hearing her innuendo.

Meeting Kudo's enraged and distressed gaze with renewed confidence, Seiya lets a victorious little smirk flicker across his face before he exchanges it for a dreamy and idiotically happy expression he decides to keep for a while. This is how his role would doubtlessly react, Seiya decides. And while Seiya finds the smirk rather petty and pities Kudo for having to deal with the annoying brat (being innately chivalrous despite his occasional fits of mischievousness, Seiya really can't stand guys who would regularly sneak a woman unwelcome kisses she has to fight off!), Seiya thinks it is only fair because, if he had been unhappily pining after Shiho as his role does, Kudo's behaviour tonight would have hurt him as well.

Before he stepped out of his dressing room to face Kudo and the commissario, Seiya has resolved to make a few changes to his role by being infuriatingly inconsistent and constantly changing his personality in a rather subtle way, just enough to conceal the truth but not so much that the perplexed commissario will consider locking him up in a mental hospital. At this very moment, he decides to switch again and to play the role of the innocent suspect who is confident that his beloved secretary and friend will never leave him for her rude and smug one-time love. And as always, Seiya Kou can almost shut out his true personality when he is absorbed in an important part...

x.

**AN: **Yay, the next update will be for this fic again since I'd like to pace the plot a bit. Poor SN will be abused next weekend as well if I have time. :D

Raksha: I love their bantering/bickering as well, which doesn't mean that I don't like to torture them in most of my fics. *evil laughter... (My sadistic alter ego is the one who writes all of my fics, in case you haven't noticed.)

haibaraai4869: Am glad that I made you happy with the last chapter, but I hope you won't throw things at me for all the chapters without any Shinichi-Shiho interactions. XD


	15. Part Two: At least that is

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story (or in her words: "live-reading it on MSN") for me. :)**

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**15. At least that is...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

At least that is one of the many altered versions of the truth Seiya keeps telling himself in his head, another simplified version which fits the present role he is trying to believe in while waiting here for Rei-chan in the so-called "café" (Makoto-chan was the one who elevated the ugliest dressing room of the opera house to this undeservedly high status) and letting Carrara and Kudo question him about tonight without revealing anything, consciously or subconsciously. But now that he has acted out the role of the unbalanced suspect well enough to confuse Kudo who must be thinking that he is sick in the head, Seiya grants himself a second break (the first one was after the incident with the napkin which amused him so much that he almost forgot how serious this situation was), a short breather in which he can be himself again and access the situation.

Things are progressing even better than Seiya has hoped because, owing to Kudo's overprotective behaviour (Kudo is the type of man who cares so much for the well-being of his friends that he can appear extremely possessive to outsiders), commissario Carrara has mistakenly thought the three of them are in a love triangle. Since the dear commissario has such a romantic mind (appearances are so deceiving, Seiya would never have guessed!), he will be absorbed in the eternal triangle his own brain has made up until Rei-chan returns and rescues Shiho and Seiya from the interrogation.

Kudo, on the other hand, is evidently so intrigued by Seiya and Shiho's little charade (Shiho told Seiya once that Kudo is obsessed with mysteries in general) that he fails to see the possibility that it might be a running joke neither Seiya nor Shiho has ever taken seriously (which is why their acting is so woefully poor that Akane-san would fire both of them if they were starring in one of her movies), and that the mystery Kudo wants to solve tonight doesn't have anything to do with their game of hide-and-seek at all.

Actually, it will be game over in a few hours, anyway; and with a corpse whose cause of death has not even been determined yet, Seiya really has other problems to worry about than unwelcome publicity or Shizuka-san's wrath. The only reason why he pretends to care for the transparent little charade is to convince Kudo and commissario Carrara that it is extremely important. From his time as a teen idol, Seiya has learnt that to convince your audience, you need to believe in your role.

The problem Seiya is confronted with tonight is a completely different one. Innately a realist despite his optimism bordering on insanity, as Shiho always calls it, Seiya knows that deceiving the police cannot be as easy as it is usually depicted in mystery novels, just as deceiving the legendary Kudo Shinichi who practically brought down the Black Organization by himself is a task Haruka-san thought sheer impossible. But then again, realist or not, Seiya has always liked a real challenge... and even though he is not at all a bad loser in other situations, losing in this situation is not even an option.

From past experiences, Seiya knows that the best way to make people overlook a glaring detail is to direct their attention to another one, to keep their minds occupied with the mice on the kitchen counter to prevent them from paying attention to the elephant in the living room. At least this interrogation has calmed him down somewhat. In fact, it almost bored him until Kudo mentioned the painkillers and Seiya suddenly got an idea of how to give this mess a perfect cleanup without the silly mocking glances which — harmless as they are — don't only drive Kudo but also Shiho mad. Actually, she has just slammed her heel onto Seiya toes and kicked him again.

Naturally, Shiho doesn't appreciate that he behaves like a wayward kid during the very first meeting with her best friend and unrequited love. If truth be told, Seiya has never wanted to alienate Kudo Shinichi out of all people, knowing that Kudo has saved Shiho's life many times and that Shiho admires her brilliant detective so much that she has put him on a pedestal Seiya can never touch. However, throwing Kudo challenging glances and ruffling his feathers a bit seemed like a good idea at first because it was the only way Seiya could distract an astute observer like Kudo from noticing the obvious.

Stealing another quick glance at Kudo's face, Seiya thinks to himself that he has never expected a man like Kudo to be so hot-tempered. Shiho has described Kudo to Seiya as a guy who can keep his cool in any situation and who never lets anything or anyone distract him from a case. But distracting Kudo has been so easy for Seiya that Seiya almost wonders whether the Kudo Shinichi Shiho told him about and the Kudo Shinichi who is sitting next to him right now are the same person. It is only natural that Kudo would rather be with Shiho alone, Seiya thinks. Kudo must be dying to know about what happened at Pandora's Box three years ago because Hattori Heiji lost his life during that case which was probably the only one Kudo couldn't solve. And yet, Kudo's dislike for Seiya is so immediate and intense (exactly like Haruka-san's hate at first sight when she ran into Seiya in Michiru-sama's dressing room) that Seiya could almost believe his first mistaken impression that his challenging glances are not the only reason for Kudo's anger and that Kudo might be jealous.

No way, Seiya thinks, dismissing his theory at once. Even though Seiya now believes that Kudo only didn't fetch her from Pandora's Box (No. 1!) because of a misunderstanding (communication is such a tricky thing) or because he got lost during the storm that night (protective as he is, the sleuth is really not the type to forget two friends of his on a ship stacked with time bombs while taking the only motorboat they had to meet up with a girl), Seiya doubts that Kudo is in love with her because Shiho doesn't know anything about it although she is usually very sensitive.

Of course there is still the possibility that Kudo was struck by love at first sight when he saw her as a grown-up. After all, the Haibara Ai Kudo knew and the Haibara Ai Seiya found at Pandora's Box was a ten-year-old girl...

Very unlikely, Seiya thinks with another glance at Kudo, registering the latter's piercing eyes, determined lips, sharp profile and unmovable figure fixed in a perfect sitting posture. The obsessive sleuth can probably only fall in love with a sphinx whose mystery he cannot solve. Come to think of it, Kudo has not even taken his childhood friend he supposedly loved so much with him to the investigation.

In any case, Seiya can't afford to underestimate Kudo, who — despite his overprotectiveness — seems to have an extremely intuitive and sharp mind (in contrast to the commissario on whom all of Seiya's subtle acting has been lost). Since Seiya doesn't want to make things easy for Kudo by fitting into a pattern, Seiya decides that it is time to change his approach.

The best way to hide a needle is to sneak it into a needle box full of other needles similar to it, Seiya once discovered when Taiki, Yaten and he played a prank on their foster mother. Hence Seiya decides to act on his instinct and to try out the other option he discovered when Kudo mentioned the painkillers: to stop the switching act and lie randomly as he did when Kudo asked him about Infinity and Haruka-san's reading habit, and wait patiently for the results of the autopsy to see whether things will turn out the way he has imagined...

x.

The singer's little smirk — mocking, victorious and self-satisfied — has not been lost on Shinichi despite his momentary speechless incredulity at Ai's unexpected snub that felt like a slap in his face. Within the split of a second, the smirk which was personally directed at Shinichi was gone, replaced by an expression of such unbelievably naive contentment that Shinichi almost admires Seiya for pulling it off. Almost...

To be honest, Shinichi knows he has brought it upon himself when he slighted Seiya by excluding him from the invitation and when he asked Ai for the second time for a private talk although she had already declined. Since he did it in Italian (but dammit, she was the one who switched to Italian in the first place so that he had to tag along!), she didn't really have the option of accepting his offer without dumping her alleged boyfriend for him in front of Carrara, a gesture which wouldn't have made sense at all in view of their elaborate little charade. Even after her polite refusal, he couldn't refrain himself from making the idiotic night-owl remark which, in this kind of situation, was misleading enough to establish Carrara's wild fantasy that Ai was his "secretary" before she went to Venice, an idea so utterly ridiculous that it would have made him laugh in a different situation.

Tonight, however, laughing is the last thing he wants to do because he would rather whisk her away from this tiny claustrophobic wannabe café and demand from her a satisfactory explanation for this mess and the odd behaviour of her deranged employer. Apart from feeling like a fool because, within only a few minutes, he has been transformed from her old friend and classmate to her ridiculously possessive ex-boyfriend in Carrara's (and in Seiya's?) eyes, Shinichi is beside himself because he has expected that she would finally shed light on the events of that night which has been haunting him for years instead of playing childish games with him.

"What about visiting us before the musical?" she suggests in a cordial and matter-of-fact voice. "For lunch or for tea, depending on when you can make it. Just come before three in the afternoon because Seiya has to leave for La Fenice at four p.m. You can bring Mori too, if she is here in Venice... By the way, how is she?"

Their eyes meet across the table, whereupon Shinichi's anger subsides. He can't detect the slightest indication of a taunt in her face but only bewilderment, probably because she doesn't understand why all of them have been staring at her as if she has said something unusual. Ai didn't intend to make fun of him when she cracked the tasteless joke. In fact, now it seems to Shinichi as if it was only an unfortunate misunderstanding or a blunder she made while she was too immersed in her role.

"She is fine," Shinichi calmly responds. "I'd like to come over for some tea, but alone so that she can spend a bit of time with Suzuki who is studying art history here."

"Until tomorrow afternoon then," Seiya Kou remarks, this time without the slightest hint of provocation in his eyes. For unknown reason, he has just returned to the unaffected and genial person who threw his keys at Hino half an hour ago, and Shinichi doesn't need much effort to force the corners of his lips up in response. Either the guy is really suffering from a multiple-personality disorder or he is a bit sadistic and enjoys messing with other people's mind, Shinichi thinks to himself. Since either explanations don't satisfy him because there is no way that Ai could have shared the apartment with such a creep for years, Shinichi is positive that Seiya's odd behaviour tonight must have something to do with the mystery.

"This afternoon," Carrara pedantically interjects. "Since it's already past midnight, I'd like to ask you the last questions before we all can go home."

x.

The curious love triangle is, much to Lele's surprise and disappointment, gradually evolving into a perfectly amiable ménage à trois. Although Lele can't say how Shiho Miyano did it, he applauds her for her ability to keep both men at her feet and to force them to cooperate with her to reach an understanding. The two young men are doing their best to make peace with each other as well, smiling pleasantly at each other as if both of them have come to the conclusion that she won't let go of either of them because she likes both.

Also, it seems that Lele has misinterpreted her relationship to Shinichi Kudo, which is even more complex than Lele thought. Apparently, Kudo abandoned her for his pretty fiancée ("Mori" must be the name of the dark-haired girl) three to four years ago whereupon she, deserted and heartbroken, went abroad and (either out of revenge or to forget Kudo) threw herself at Seiya Kou. Even though it looks like Shinichi Kudo regrets his decision now and would like to start anew, she is smart enough to stay with her nice celebrity boyfriend while leaving her options open by tentatively renewing her connection to Kudo. A greedy woman, just as Seiya Kou said when she made the joke about auctioning off his napkin. Although he knows his girlfriend is the greedy type, he still loves her so much that he happily lets his rival enter her life again, the pitiful love-sick idiot! And that with all the other women swooning over him! Nobody would have expected such a pathetic loser after seeing his face, Lele thinks to himself. Appearances are surely deceiving.

"Did you talk to someone else before visiting Signora Hino? Signor Gentile told us you two talked a bit in the foyer," he asks Seiya Kou, whereupon Shinichi Kudo adds: "Since he said it was before he went to Tenoh the second time, it must have been between eight and eight fifteen."

"At the bar," the singer admits. "I only asked Gentile whether he knew where Shiho was since I couldn't find her in the hall."

"But why did you ask him instead of searching for her in your dressing room?" Shinichi Kudo queries. "Since the portiere told us you came back through the exit, I thought you had passed the backstage area before entering the concert hall."

"I did pass the backstage area," Seiya Kou replies. "But I thought that she was waiting for me in the hall or in the foyer."

"We wanted to meet in the hall after the second act," Shiho Miyano interjects. "But since Seiya was late and the noise at the bar gave me headaches, I decided to wait for him in his dressing room instead."

"Signor Gentile told us he accompanied you to your dressing room," Lele remarks.

"He insisted on doing it," she shrugs, giving him a dark sidelong glance. She belongs to the few women in the world who still look sympathetic and charming despite the bored and gloomy expression on her face, a face so beguiling when she smiles that Lele can't help wondering uneasily whether the unprincipled young men nowadays would gladly die and kill for her if she wanted to. Isn't that what probably happened tonight? She could have wrapped Haruka Tenoh around her little finger and unintentionally played games with the pianist just as she does with Shinichi Kudo and Seiya Kou. But while the singer seems not averse to sharing her with a rival like Kudo, seeing her messing around with his archenemy (and a woman to boot!) in front of his eyes must have made him furious...

"So you asked Signor Gentile where Signora Miyano was because you couldn't find her in the hall?" Lele turns to Seiya Kou. "Why did you think that he would know her whereabouts?"

"He has a crush on her," the singer replies as if it was something everybody at the table must have noticed. "Since he never takes his eyes off her, I thought he would know whether she was in front of the main entrance or in my dressing room." Giving his girlfriend a boyish grin, he adds: "I don't like running around without a purpose because I'm a lazy person."

"Is that the reason he doesn't like you?" Lele asks. Seiya Kou must have noticed by now that it is futile to hide his relationship with her from the police, and it saddens Lele somewhat that he cannot think of another reason why he should continue to hide something so obvious unless it was really the motive for the murder.

"Maybe," the singer says thoughtfully, finally giving up the pretense. "But I don't enjoy seeing his mournful face around either, so we're even, I'd guess."

"Alessandra DiGiorgio, the usher at the left entrance, told us you gave her an autograph on her left arm and talked with her from five past eight to ten past eight before talking to Gentile," Shinichi Kudo changes the topic. The detective has a fairly good memory for names and facts he only heard once although he — deliberately or accidentally? — tends to make mistakes when it comes to the time and the order of the happenings. Throwing a glance at his papers, Lele reassures himself that his excellent memory serves him correctly because Alessandra DiGiorgio told his officers that Seiya Kou gave her the autograph and stayed with her from six past eight to sixteen past eight _after_ talking to the artistic director.

"Oh, I almost forgot that," Seiya Kou says dismissively, "I don't know when it was, but I think it was after I talked to Gentile."

"Chiba said you talked to the usher first," Shinichi Kudo obstinately insists.

"Mamoru was on the phone with his wife," Seiya Kou says, apparently puzzled at Kudo's pedantry, "and whenever he is on the phone with her, he doesn't pay much attention to the things around him. But why are you interested in such an unimportant detail?"

"Do you know each other through his wife?" Shinichi Kudo asks, ignoring Seiya Kou's question. "He told us you are one of her best friends."

The interrogation, which almost reminds Lele of a pleasant chat now that Shinichi Kudo has eased up and relaxed, has turned to the subject of Mamoru Chiba's wife, the woman who was once in a romantic relationship with Seiya Kou before her marriage to Chiba, according to Shinichi Kudo's theory. Kudo apparently thinks that the scandal and the mysterious "misunderstanding" between Haruka Tenoh, Mamoru Chiba and Seiya Kou has something to do with this case. One thing Lele must admit is that, despite being at times pedantic and impetuous, Shinichi Kudo is extremely motivated and thorough.

"Yes," the singer answers with a quick reassuring glance at his girlfriend. "We were classmates and stayed in touch after finishing school." Perceiving a note of defensiveness in his voice, Lele deduces in amusement that Shiho Miyano is not only a greedy but also a jealous girl.

"And Kaioh Michiru and Tenoh Haruka?" Shinichi Kudo asks. "Chiba told us Tenoh was his wife's friend as well."

"She has a lot of friends," Seiya Kou smiles. He seems to like talking about Chiba's wife even in front of his girlfriend, which is odd if the affair had ended really so badly as Lele thought it had.

At this moment, Seiya Kou's mobile phone rings, and after glancing at the display on which Lele can only discern Japanese symbols he cannot read, the singer turns to his girlfriend and remarks: "It's Rei."

x.

"Well, have you brought everyone home?" asks Seiya-kun. His tantalizing voice, despite its typical teasing edge, sound a tiny bit less cheery than usual, a detail nobody but a person who has been watching him for years would be able to detect.

"Just come out. I'm waiting for you two outside," Rei casually remarks, wondering whether her voice betrays any anxiety or whether she sounds fairly normal. Her voice seems weak and slightly husky in her ears. But knowing him, he will think it is nothing unusual after belting out Haruka-san's "opera" for the whole evening.

"Great, we'll come out immediately," he laughs, sounding so carefree that she almost winces at the huge gulf between her and his acting skills, and ends the call before she can reply anything.

Leaning back in her seat, Rei sighs at the memory of how she hastily jumped to conclusions when the perverted little sleuth trapped her with the slow clock. Shocked about the realization that only Seiya-kun could have put it back, she completely missed the fact that, if he had only visited her to use her as she thought, he would have grabbed the chance when everybody went on stage to run upstairs and put it forward.

Did she say something stupid tonight during the interrogation, Rei wonders, cursing herself for her volatile temperament she simply can't control. She also went over the top, gossiped about her best friends and almost told the sleuth about the romantic friendship between Seiya-kun and Usagi, which was luckily brought to a stop by Haruka-san's interference. But since it happened years ago and is no longer of any importance, she didn't think that it could affect Commissario Carrara's opinion about Seiya-kun in any way. Almost everybody had one or two unhappy romances in the course of their life without turning into a murderer, right?

Calling to mind the time nine years ago when her friends and she herself belonged to the wide-eyed teens who were fantasizing about Three Lights day and night, Rei realizes how juvenile all of them must have looked in Haruka-san's eyes. And yet, Ami-chan and Rei were still more mature than Mako-chan, Mina-chan and Usagi were. While Rei didn't really like the way how Haruka-san butted in and put a stop to Usagi and Seiya-kun's blossoming romance, Rei shared Haruka-san's viewpoint that it would have been a disaster if the two of them had started something with each other because Usagi would never have forgiven herself for abandoning Mamoru-san. After realizing that Mamoru-san and she had only misunderstood each other due to their lack of communication, Usagi would most probably have left Seiya-kun and returned to her one true love. Due to Haruka-san's interference, the tentative little romance ended up as a giant scandal which shook Mamoru-san out of the delusion that he had to focus on his studies for the future of his girlfriend, and they made up and finally had their happily-ever-after which would have been perfect if it hadn't been for Seiya-kun who was completely heartbroken.

As heartbroken as Seiya Kou can be, Rei thinks with a sardonic smirk, since even his sadness was productive and improved his geographic knowledge (he travelled a lot afterwards) and his drumming skills (Yaten-kun told her they were terrific, an unusual compliment from Yaten-kun's mouth). He even went to their wedding two years later with a smile and joked that he was glad to come because it was his only chance at kissing the bride. All's well that ends well, he airily said, winking at Rei whom he considered a fellow sufferer after she told him she once went out with Mamoru-san...

Although Rei knew that Seiya-kun was desperately in love with Usagi, Rei also knew perfectly well that he would get over her some day, something Mamoru-san, who is much more fragile than he looks, would never have managed. Seiya-kun has always been extremely independent and resilient, impossible to break and, as Rei once believed, impossible to hold on to. And even though Shiho-san has surprised Rei by successfully chaining him to her for almost four years, Rei can appease her vanity with the thought that she was right when it came to Seiya-kun's ability to recover, as Seiya-kun obviously got over his hopeless infatuation with Usagi when he eloped with his "Shiho" to Venice after knowing her for only a few days...

He has never addressed any girl without a suffix before, Rei thinks, wondering why they are trying to hide their relationship which is so obvious that it has become a burden for all their friends to pretend that there is nothing but friendship between the two of them. The moment she heard the news from Mina-chan, she couldn't really believe it. Seiya-kun was living with a strawberry blonde who he tried to pass off as his secretary, Mina-chan had said, although it was obvious to anybody who had eyes that they were having an affair. But when Haruka-san and Michiru-san admitted that they had known about the whole thing for a while because it started at their place, Rei knew that it must be the truth; and the realization that he had rejected all the beautiful girls who had been pursuing him for years to elope with a stranger he only knew for a few days completely threw her...

This wouldn't be the first time she is the third party in a love triangle, and Rei no longer wonders why she always falls in love with men who can't reciprocate her feelings. It is a subconscious fear of commitment, Ami-chan once suggested, as if Rei's subconscious could have known in advance who would never fall in love with her in return!

Freezing in the cold November wind, Rei pulls her woolly hat over her ears and readjusts her shawl.

Anyway, Seiya-kun has always been much too bohemian and wild for the dependent and helpless Usagi, who needs a more gentle, down-to-earth and pragmatic person to take care of her. In return, Usagi's bubbly and bright personality balances out Mamoru-san's gloom and seriousness. Hence, even though Mamoru-san was Rei's first love and it did hurt her somewhat to give him up, Rei was glad that she could make Usagi happy with her little sacrifice when all was said and done. For Rei, fairness, loyalty and friendship have always been more important than something as trifling as love.

Tapping her fingers impatiently at the steering wheel, Rei rolls her eyes in exasperation and wonders why it takes Seiya-kun and Shiho-san so long. Hopefully Commissario Carrara and the perverted little sleuth won't force them to go through all the unnecessary bureaucratic nonsense like proving their alibis and identifying the corpse.

Thinking back to the picturesque sight of Haruka-san's peaceful face, her soft blonde hair and her dark tailcoat against the light ochre carpet, Hino Rei coolly asks herself the question whether she still feels any sorrow for the body in the dressing room and, after a minute of serious contemplation, ascertains that she doesn't feel it.

No, Rei decides. She feels no pity for her, none at all! Because even with her ambiguous attitude towards men and love, when it comes to the few principles she really believes in, Hino Rei is simple and straightforward.

Corny as it sounds, there are only three things which really mean something to Rei and which she now recites like a mantra in her mind: A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye. All for one and one for all. And traitors deserve to die.

x.

**AN:** FS demands cyber-cookies for the fast update! (I don't know what SN/Ritzen wants but she has betaed this although she was sleep-deprived. Maybe I'm really going to write her a Gintama one-shot. XD)

Actually, I wanted to write the whole fic from Shinichi's point of view. But then I thought many things would be clearer if I inserted other people's POVs, too, at least in this part of the story. Most chapters will still be in Shinichi's POV, though.

From now on I'm going to write both "Encounter in Venice" and "Ghost at Twilight" at the same time and update the one I finish first.


	16. Part Two: From the expression

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story (or in her words: "live-reading it on MSN") for me. :)**

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**16. From the expression...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

From the expression on Kudo's face whenever Seiya opens his mouth to say a word, Shiho infers that Kudo is only holding back for her sake although he would rather drag his number one suspect by his ponytail out of the opera house and dump him into the Canal instead.

Which is actually a brilliant idea, she realizes, feeling almost tempted to try it out. At a certain point in the interrogation (when the commissario asked Seiya what he had been doing before chatting with Kino-san?), the real Seiya abandoned her and disappeared, leaving her with a stranger she doesn't know.

"Rei is waiting for us outside," the stranger declares, flashing a polite smile to everyone at the table. "I'm very sorry, but we have to go home now."

How wonderfully natural, warm and well-behaved he sounds! But "I'm very sorry" is something the real Seiya would never have said, much less in this earnest tone and in a situation in which the phrase "I'm very sorry" doesn't mean anything. Actually, it would have been more like Seiya if he had uttered it with a rebellious smile and in a mocking tone showing her that he absolutely didn't mean it.

Although Shiho did notice that her self-appointed "employer" (sometimes even she can't tell whether Seiya's naiveté and occasional spells of idiocy are real or only acted!) appeared somewhat distracted ever since they left his dressing room, the overly chivalrous way in which he opened the door for her and pulled out her chair had given her the mistaken impression that he was only teasing her as he always does. Even his question whether he was allowed to share a bottle of sherry with Kudo didn't seem out of character for him although she knows he never drinks more than one glass. His joke about her being responsible for the contents of his pockets and his laughter afterwards were in character for him as well. The same applies to his unapologetic "Sorry" and the impish little wink which accompanied it...

As a matter of fact, Shiho only discovered that something was definitely wrong with Seiya when she noticed that his body language seemed different from usual and spotted the peculiar glimmer in his eyes. Moreover, his sudden and uncharacteristic eagerness to please Kudo and the commissario began to unsettle her. Knowing Seiya's tendency to regress to the mental age of three or four whenever he is bored, she strongly suspected that he was up to mischief and about to play a prank on her again. But it wasn't until she caught him staring at her in ardent admiration, greedily ogling her with a meek and longing expression reminding her vaguely of Gentile's, that she realized what he was doing.

Flashing a winning smile at Kudo one moment (Aino-san's smile?) and shooting him challenging glances (Hino-san's glances!) the next, giving Shiho outrageous winks (Tenoh-san's winks!) one moment and coyly blushing at her (Odango's expression when she saw him?) the next, watching Kudo with intense curiosity one moment (he didn't have to act for this!) and gazing melancholically into his glass of water (Mizuno-san's gaze!) the next... For a reason she can't guess, Seiya has been acting out an unstable and shady character who changes his personality from one moment to the next without caring in the least about the fact that he is fueling the commissario's suspicion against him.

Whenever he is at his best, Seiya completely becomes his role after a few minutes of practice, and Shiho has no doubt that he has even synchronized his thoughts with his role by now and momentarily turned into whatever he wanted to act out. Although the changes in Seiya's facial expressions, gestures and tone of voice are too subtle to make an impression on the dense commissario, Kudo is apparently just as disturbed by Seiya as Shiho herself would have been if she hadn't been living with Seiya for years and known that he is sensible despite his secretive aura and his sporadic fits of unparalleled idiocy (by her definition!) or unmatched genius (by his own definition!).

"Just a few questions before you go," Kudo demands. "Do you know where Tenoh usually kept her keys?"

"She used to hang her bunch of keys on the peg behind the door," Seiya replies with a civil smile. "I know it because I always do the same with mine and she once accused me of imitating her."

Even though Shiho knows it must have been a lie because Seiya always leaves his key in the keyhole or sneaks it into her handbag, he looked and sounded so sincere that she can't help wondering for a moment whether the anecdote about Tenoh-san's petty accusation was true.

"We only found the key to her dressing room on the peg," Kudo continues with a perceptive glance at her. "Do you know where she usually kept the keys to her apartment?"

"No, I don't," Seiya says as a matter of fact.

"I heard her privacy was very important to her," Kudo thoughtfully adds.

"That's true," Seiya (who is still borrowing Taiki-san's smile) agrees.

"Which is why it's really odd that she left her bag here in the café instead of taking it with her to the dressing room," Kudo continues. "Do you know when and why she left her bag here?"

Through a thick fog, Shiho can see herself kicking the bag on the floor aside after shutting the door to the café...

"Haruka must have forgotten it here after having tea with me," she replies in a steady voice although her headaches have returned with a vengeance. "We were here together during the first interval until she had to go on stage for the second act."

"You can ask us your questions another time," Seiya breaks in, rises from the table, takes her arm and leads her towards the coat rack next to the bar while she follows him in a daze. "We really need a few hours of sleep, and Rei must already be freezing outside."

Throwing him a wondering glance because he has just let go of her as if touching her was unpleasant, Shiho realizes that he looks irritated and bored now, posing with his back propped against the bar and displaying an aloof and snobbish attitude he could only have copied from his oldest brother. In another situation, she would have found his transformation from Taiki Kou to Yaten Kou fascinating to watch; but in this situation, she would do anything to get the real Seiya back because the last person she needs with her now is Yaten-san.

"What does SB mean?" Kudo asks out of a sudden, taking her by surprise because she has not expected him to know about Stinger's abbreviations.

"Super Bowl, of course, or stolen base," Seiya deadpans before she can reply. Laughing in spite of her headaches, she turns to him in relief, expecting to see the real Seiya in his eyes again. However, he still looks slightly detached when he meets her gaze, as if he is still playing a role or is trying to snap out of it but can't.

"And M?" Kudo continues.

"Me?" Seiya suggests.

There have been other moments during which her (usually sane) "employer" appeared so much like himself that she mistakenly thought he had finally decided to revert to normal, Shiho recalls in disappointment. Only the real Seiya would have been cheeky enough to mimic her or tap a rhythm on his glass. Once, during a walk on the beach in front of Tenoh-san's house, he told her that he never had much trouble to get into his roles because one could find almost any character trait of someone else in oneself if one only looked closely enough. However, while his multi-faceted personality has intrigued her since the very first moment they met, Seiya has never seemed to her like a duplicitous person...

"I only have a last question for now," Kudo remarks, getting up from the table with a start. "Gentile said you came through the main entrance during the second interval. Why did you go out for the second time?"

"He didn't come back through the main entrance," she tells Kudo while gesturing for Seiya to take her handbag from the coat rack. "Gentile's memory is usually not very reliable."

"The portiere said he went out again during the second interval," Kudo testily counters, "and Kino told us she saw him going out just when Tenoh opened the door to the café and asked her for a cup of water. If he didn't return through the main entrance to leave through the exit again, three people's memories had been playing a prank on them."

"I did go out again after I returned," Seiya admits while helping her into her coat. "Shiho got a migraine before the first act. And since I couldn't find her favourite painkillers at home, I decided to buy some headache pills from the drugstore for her instead."

Slipping into his jacket with his usual self-assured smile on his lips, he continues to provoke Kudo and the commissario by adding: "Unfortunately the drugstores were all closed by the time I came. Otherwise I'd have purchased some mysterious undetectable poison for Haruka as a gift."

This time, the joke didn't seem very much out of character, and Shiho would only have thought Seiya was a bit more irreverent and impertinent than usual if it weren't for the change in his posture (she can't tell who he is impersonating this time) and his unfamiliarly cool gaze.

"We still need your contact address," Kudo gloomily fishes a notebook and a pen out of his pocket. For a fleeting nostalgic moment, Shiho is struck by the memory of how she used to snatch the notebook out of his hand or peer over his shoulder. Thanks to the person who impersonated the Professor and Kudo and stole all her letters and her mails, she must have been dead to them all these years.

In reality, she has written the Professor every week and Kudo once or twice a month (more would have seemed inappropriate considering that he would have had to justify the regular mails from another woman to Mori-san). Until the quarrel between Seiya and Tenoh-san tonight, she had been under the illusion that Kudo and she were still close friends even though the bond had loosened a bit with time. During the four years in Venice, she has often tried to imagine how their reunion after her return to Beika would be. In her thoughts, however, they always met differently, in another setting and another plot. Whatever she expected it to be, she never thought that it would be in the backstage area of La Fenice and that he out of all people would be interrogating her.

Although it could have been worse, she thinks, sneaking another furtive glance at Kudo's face which now looks distinctly sharper and more serious than she remembers. She likes his present face even more than the old one, she decides, because the seriousness doesn't take anything away from its unobtrusive attractiveness while the sharpness only seems to emphasize its classical, almost flawless beauty.

Noticing that he is being watched, Kudo abruptly directs his gaze from Seiya to her and gives her a cold, inquisitive glare.

"Please write down your contact address and phone numbers for me here," he orders Seiya in a voice which could have cut through a diamond. His mood has visibly worsened after Seiya and she got up from their chairs, most probably because the prospect of having to wait until tomorrow before he can talk to them again is irking him.

As expected, he is still the mystery-obsessed Sherlock she knew, the clueless consulting detective who unknowingly confessed to her four years ago...

What are you going to do after taking the cure, she remembers asking him the night she finished the antidote, knowing in advance what he was going to say although she couldn't extinguish the small treacherous glimmer of hope that his answer might be unexpected like his cage-shaped pendant which didn't contain a bird as she had thought.

Bringing down the Organization, securing Pandora's Box, proposing to Ran, he had answered after a moment of hesitation. Actually, he had already confessed to Ran long ago so that they were sort of having a long-distance relationship now. He would have told her about it earlier if talking about it hadn't seemed so awkward to him.

Well then, she had said, realizing that she was right when she suspected that he had never looked at the pendant closely enough to know what it really was. I'll give you the permanent antidote right now if you can delay all those things for a few hours and stay here with me while I'm watching Charade...

Ignoring Kudo's notebook, Seiya turns to her expectantly whereupon she, miming the perfect secretary, takes a card out of her handbag and hands it Kudo. Not at all amused about their little charade, Kudo snatches the card out of her hand with an exasperated sigh and inspects it without looking at her.

Apparently, Kudo has been holding a grudge against her all these years, which is only natural in view of her sudden disappearance and her lack of communication. In his view, she has simply abandoned the Professor and the Detective Boys without as much as a sign that she is still alive. To make matters worse, he must be thinking she is now working as a secretary — a job which doesn't suit her in the least — because she is besotted with a popular (and stark raving mad!) celebrity who is only using her to fight off his troublesome groupies.

"But why did you return to the opera house before going to the drugstore?" the commissario asks the celebrity whose schedule she does not organize. The only paperwork she does is separating their bills and letters from their spam (she considers all kinds of advertisements, love letters and fan posts to Seiya spam!) and ripping the latter apart.

"I don't know," Seiya cheerfully replies. "It was a spontaneous decision." Wrapping Shiho's scarf around her neck with Kaioh-san's artistic finesse, he flippantly continues: "If you can find anything which proves that Haruka didn't die naturally, I'm looking forward to continue this talk over a cup of tea. But if you don't, I hope you will leave us alone this season. Our apartment is too much of a mess to welcome any visitors apart from our closest friends, and we don't have much time for housework because I need to focus on the musical."

"I see," commissario Carrara gravely mutters while following them to the door. Seeing the self-important and sorrowful expression on his face, Shiho doesn't need Kudo's deduction skills to know with certainty that the commissario expects to haul Seiya off to jail before the end of the month at the latest.

"You know what I've been wondering all the time?" she cast her darkest glance at the commissario while buttoning up her trench coat. "I was alone and without an alibi. So why are you so fixated on Seiya and don't even think of questioning me?"

It's ironic, really, she thinks to herself while rubbing her sore temples, because she is actually the only person in the backstage area with means, motive, and opportunity.

x.

**AN:** Yay, this update was for Encounter again although the next one will most probably be for "Ghost of Twilight".

I do remember that I mentioned in one of the first chapters that Shinichi has mistaken Ran's chocolate heart for a chocolate peach once again, but I'm going to explain it later in detail. (Just wanted to make clear that the confession Conan told Ai about in this chapter was not a giant plothole.)

I'm thankful for comments and theories (or the short "I was here" review! SN/Ritzen and I once decided that we need an "I was here" stamp for people who don't have time to review but want to tell us that they have actually managed to finish the chapter and will still be reading the story until the end. XD)


	17. Part Two: Of course he has

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**Thanks a lot to SN 1987a (Ritzen), who is now betaing this story (or in her words: "live-reading it on MSN") for me. :)**

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**17. Of course he has...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Of course he has never dared to suspect anybody, Lele hastily reassures the girl. Her "employer" (she blushes with anger at the term) has only been questioned so thoroughly because he happened to be in the backstage area at the time of Signora Tenoh's death. If anybody could help them bring light into Signora Tenoh's mysterious and untimely demise, that person would be him. She, on the other hand, had been sleeping for the whole time so that Lele didn't expect her to have anything to say about the tragedy which occurred tonight.

Visibly uninterested in Lele's justifications, she has turned her attention to Shinichi Kudo again, who is silently staring at her with a look of astonishment and disbelief. The detective is evidently in distress at the discovery that she is deeply in love with the man she is living with — an undeniable fact as she has just incriminated herself in an attempt to divert Lele's suspicion from the singer.

"Wait a moment," Kudo exclaims before she can leave, decisively pulls her back by her wrist and — much to Lele's surprise — offers her a few blue-white capsules similar to those he took before the interrogations when he asked Lele for a glass of water. They are strong painkillers against the migraine, the detective claims, directing his piercing gaze at her boyfriend who returns his glare with a most charming smile.

It appears that the painkillers are an obscure traditional Asian wonder-drug Lele has never heard about. Shiho Miyano, to all appearances, has already seen them or has even used them before. Flashing Kudo a fleeting smile, she wordlessly accepts the capsules, shoves two into her mouth and then downs the glass of water her boyfriend has just poured her, drinking up the water in one single gulp.

"Thanks," she tells Kudo with a sigh of relief, distractedly clinging at her boyfriend's arm. "I thought they would never stop."

Exasperated with her little gesture, Kudo sighs and turns away from her so abruptly that his elbow knocks over Lele's empty water glass.

"I see you've become all fingers and thumbs with age," she jokes, handing Seiya Kou her glass while the latter is watching Shinichi Kudo perceptively with a puzzled expression. Laid-back and unconventional as he is, it must be difficult for him to comprehend Kudo's jealousy and possessiveness.

"Just like you've become rather dependent and forgetful," the detective rejoins, whereupon she only blinks at him, incredulous.

It is highly improbable that Kudo can share her love with another man if he can't even bear the sight of them linking arms, a casual and completely harmless gesture in the bohemian world of acting. Notwithstanding his honest attempt at befriending her boyfriend as she wishes, Kudo doesn't seem to Lele like a person who can endure a ménage à trois for long without getting hurt.

"I'm sorry to pry into your private affairs, but I think it's also in your best interest to unravel the mystery surrounding Signora Tenoh's death as soon as possible," Lele turns to Seiya Kou who is already on the way to the door. "Rumours around you spread like wild fire here in Venice. And it will be hard to convince people that there isn't a grain of truth in them if you can't provide proof of your innocence, you know?"

"People will always talk," the singer responds, opens the door for Shiho Miyano and quickly removes a long black hair of his from her beige trenchcoat when she passes him. "I've learnt not to pay much attention to anything they say. Apart from that, my reputation isn't exactly what one can call spotless. Rumours won't be able to destroy my career as they would destroy Mamoru's or Rei's." Closely following his girlfriend into the corridor, he leaves the open door to Shinichi Kudo, who goes after the couple so swiftly that he simply lets the door fall shut in front of Lele's face.

The detective hasn't been quite himself ever since the incident with the napkin, which must still be tormenting him so much that he can't concentrate. It's no wonder that he is pained by the thought of her sneaking a napkin into the singer's trouser pockets, knowing her as a playful lover who is — and Lele is sure of that after seeing her laugh — very passionate despite her calm outward appearance...

Like an epiphany, the thought suddenly crosses Lele's mind that Seiya Kou's napkin might be an interesting piece of evidence Lele can't officially impound before getting the results of the autopsy proving that Haruka Tenoh didn't die a natural death. Turning on his heels to secretly confiscate the napkin which must still be hanging on the hook next to the coffee machine, Lele discovers in alarm that it has disappeared. Seiya Kou, who was standing at the coat rack (and who was the only person in the vicinity of the hook), must have retrieved it unnoticed when Lele was distracted by Shinichi Kudo and the girl.

The singer is a quick-witted young man who is less harmless than he looks, Lele thinks, classifying his number one suspect under the type of the unscrupulous bohemian who is strangely sympathetic despite his dubious character. Lele has met only few species of the type in the course of his professional life — and none of them has appeared to him as nice and as well-behaved as Seiya Kou. Irresistibly charming and loyal towards his friends and his allies, calculating and ruthlessly efficient when threatened by an enemy, Seiya Kou belongs to the people who are generous in spirit but — if they regard it as necessary — don't hesitate to kill.

Stepping on boundaries regularly without receiving a punishment can corrupt the most noble minds, Lele thinks to himself, remembering a few young sociopaths who had escaped the law a few times before they completely lost it and went on a killing spree. Seiya Kou fits into the pattern well with his uninhibited and bold character which only lacks the antisocial mean streak. And Lele, feeling sorry for all the three of them, seriously hopes that the lack of meanness in the singer's character is real and not only acted.

Letting the door behind him fall shut with a quiet click, Lele grimly joins the trio on the way to the exit.

"Our society is fascinated by secret love affairs and stories about unbridled passion," Lele tells Seiya Kou in a low voice when they turn right into the small corridor leading to the exit. "A playboy image might even support your career more than endangering it. Poisons, however, aren't that much in fashion anymore and don't go with your sportsmanlike conduct. I'd hate to see a career like yours ruined by unfounded claims since it would be such a great loss to the musical world."

A fair warning which should be sufficient to help the singer realize the gravity of his situation if he is really as innocent as he looks. But instead of being thankful for it as one would expect, Seiya Kou only raises his brow at Lele with a somewhat amused expression.

At the same time, Shinichi Kudo and Shiho Miyano have slowed down and are walking together as if they had never separated, whispering (sweet nothings?) into each other's ears while their temples are almost touching. A furtive glance over his shoulder reveals to Lele that she has just brushed her fingertips gently against the detective's silver grey slacks and is now leaving him to casually sidle up to her boyfriend with her hands in her pockets, her unfathomable cat-like eyes momentarily lightened up by a mischievous, slightly complacent smile.

Self-absorbed and indiscreet as people in love always are, they are flirting shamelessly even in the presence of her boyfriend who is busying himself with his mobile phone so that he can save face in front of Lele by pretending he hasn't noticed it. Simultaneously touched and irritated by Seiya Kou's desperate attempt to overlook his girlfriend's thoughtless behaviour, Lele feels a surge of anger rising at Shiho Miyano's coquetry. As suspected, she belongs to the flighty femme fatales who always bring ruin on the men they love with their inability to make a choice and to stick to it. How many senseless wars have been fought on grounds of a single woman's fickleness and infidelity.

"The musical world will exist with or without me," Seiya Kou stoically shrugs and shows his girlfriend a message on the display of his phone (a short mail from a mutual friend?) before he puts it back into his pocket and offers her his arm. "One singer more or less really doesn't matter, I think."

"At least not to the musical world," Shiho Miyano whispers, squeezing his arm she is now holding. Apparently, they have finally given up their charade; and in view of their newly acquired frankness, Lele decides to be straightforward as well.

"You had a quarrel with Signora Tenoh before the first act, so I heard," Lele gravely says, throwing a sidelong glance at Shinichi Kudo who has turned his face away to behold the poster of _The Phantom of the Opera_ on the wall. Rei Hino — the temperamental soprano looks the embodiment of vulnerable beauty with her dark hair and her porcelain-doll face — is gazing up at the masked figure hovering above her in rapture and fascination which seem almost too real to be acted.

"We were always having a row about something," the singer dryly replies. "It would have been odd if we hadn't quarreled at all."

"May I ask what you two argued about this time?"

"This time it was about her opera. She dedicated it to me and I refused to sing it after studying the scores. Before the first act, she demanded that I tell her my personal opinion about it and I answered truthfully that it didn't meet her standard."

"Someone who overheard the quarrel claimed that it was about a letter to your agent in which Signora Tenoh revealed details from your private life — details you would rather hide from the public and from her." Lele gives Shiho Miyano an apologetic smile.

They have just reached the exit where Guido Moretti — at the sight of Seiya Kou, as Lele notices — immediately puts the paperback in his hand away, reaches under the counter and releases the turnstile of his own accord. Pushing the door open, the singer doesn't immediately step out into the campo beyond the door but stops right in front of the exit, turning back to shoot the portiere a long, challenging smile.

"I remember she ranted a bit about Shiho's reputation as well, threatening that she was going to send my agent to Venice to talk Shiho into moving out. It's one of Haruka's pet threats whenever she felt insulted, nothing to be taken seriously. But may I ask who the witnesses of our quarrel were?" Seiya Kou asks with interest whereupon Moretti blushes and pales in turn. Seeing no sense in hiding the identity of the witnesses, Lele tells Seiya Kou the names, much to Moretti's apparent dismay.

"Gentile doesn't understand Japanese," Seiya Kou chuckles, "and since I'm sure that he—" he indicates the portiere, "— doesn't understand Japanese either, the only eye witness to that quarrel was Nadia Gorowitz, and you haven't ever spoken to her in person, have you?"

No, he hasn't, Lele admits. He will be meeting her, though, if he deems it necessary as the case progresses.

"Well, then," Seiya Kou smiles, beaming at him with the exuberance of a child. "I'm very curious about your opinion of Gorowitz after you two meet. And now Shiho and I really need to leave since we can't let Rei wait any longer."

"Only one last question," Lele requests. "You had tickets for the opera, so I heard, and you went out during the first interval to fetch the painkillers for Signora Miyano — as witnessed by Signor Moretti who released the turnstile for you. But why didn't you attend the first act? Where were you?" Searching in Shinichi Kudo's unreadable face for a sign of support, Lele adds as an afterthought: "If Signora Miyano already suffered from her headaches before the first act, why didn't you go out to get her painkillers immediately but stayed in the opera house until the first interval?"

"I didn't have any headaches during the first act," interjects Shiho Miyano before her boyfriend can reply. Leaning closer to the startled singer who — after a moment of stunned silence — sighs in defeat and protectively wraps his arm around her waist, she gives Lele a tired smile and explains: "Seiya doesn't have much time these days because of the musical. Hence we decided to stay in his dressing room to spend a bit of time together instead of watching Haruka's performance. Are you disappointed now? It's the truth although it's not very spectacular."

x.

Her intimate tone of voice and her flushed face suggest unspeakable secrets within the walls of a private dressing room, making Shinichi wonder why Ai thinks that Seiya needs an alibi for the first act and wants to shield him so badly that she voluntarily ruins whatever is left of her reputation for his safety. This is the second time that she forgets about herself to protect the selfish idol brat, acting so impetuously and irrationally that Shinichi would believe that she is really in love with the guy if the thought of Haibara-Ai-in-love weren't so frightening to him.

Whatever the quarrel was about, it must have been big enough to prompt Seiya and her to stay in the backstage area instead of watching Tenoh Haruka's and Hino Rei's performance, a behaviour so inconsiderate and overtly rude in the light of Hino's theatrical debut that they must have had a better reason to justify it than only the wish of spending some free time with each other. However, so many unanswered questions are still whirling around in Shinichi's head that he decides to postpone thinking about this reason until later when he is alone.

Now the four of them are walking down the narrow street along the opera house towards the Canal where Hino Rei is waiting for Seiya and Ai in Seiya's motorboat. Even though his coat is still in the cloakroom and the air has become chilly in the night, Shinichi has insisted on escorting them to the motorboat so that he can use the time to interrogate Seiya Kou. To his annoyance, Carrara has decided to come with them as well, giving Shinichi understanding and worried glances as if he feared Shinichi might commit a crime of passion in his absence.

Throwing another irritated glance at the linked arms of the fake couple in front of him, Shinichi thinks to himself that, notwithstanding his unpolished acting skills, he and Ai were indisputably the better team during their charade. Seiya and Ai, despite being two brilliant talents who can easily fool the whole world with their acting, have frequent awkward moments as a pair in which they seem completely out of sync: moment in which either of them go over the top or suddenly do something which doesn't quite fit into their charade as if they haven't really agreed on what type of charade they are actually playing.

What are they trying to achieve with their senseless game, anyway? They have just fooled Carrara into believing that they are passionately in love although it only strengthened Carrara's suspicion on Seiya — a fact anyone would have expected after hearing what Carrara told them about Gorowitz's witness account. Asking her directly like Shinichi did in the corridor ("Why don't you just stop this stupid game of hide-and-seek?") was futile as she obviously can't comprehend Shinichi's impatience ("Just wait until we can talk about it tomorrow!).

The short mail from Taiki Kou which Seiya showed Ai and which Shinichi — walking behind them — has managed to read doesn't make the situation any clearer to him. "Just hold on and keep it up until I can tell you," it said. Hold on, just keep up the charade... But what for, for heaven's sake!

"There is a Sherlock Holmes painting in Tenoh's dressing room. Do you know who painted it?" Shinichi asks Seiya.

He doesn't know the artist of the Sherlock Holmes painting, Seiya Kou replies. Of course he noticed the painting when he went to Haruka's room to borrow the sofa she didn't need for Shiho, who likes to nap during the day and stay awake all night like a cat. But he can't say who painted it because Michiru's style is completely different, apart from the fact that it looks as if it has been painted by someone else who has talents but whose technical skills can't hold a candle to Michiru's perfection.

"Like a cat..." Ai echoes in mock exasperation.

"Or like a little kitten," Seiya teases her.

"At least I do sleep unlike a certain someone who is too overactive for his own sake," she remarks and intertwines their fingers while his thumb gently caresses the back of hers in an automatic gesture.

Meanwhile, Shinichi suppresses the urge to roll his eyes at their performance and retains a nonchalant expression in order to dispel Carrara's groundless fear. The silliness of their game irks him more than he can express although most of his fury stems from his impatience and his feelings of betrayal and not from jealousy as Carrara is obviously thinking.

They are still holding hands when they arrive at Seiya's boat where Hino Rei is sitting behind the wheel, waiting for them. Rubbing her arms and fidgeting with boredom, she doesn't even try to hide her displeasure at the sight of Shinichi and Carrara walking behind her friends.

"I didn't know I have to drive all of you! What about shaking a leg before I freeze to death here? I really need a few hours of sleep after this so-called 'opera'!" Hino complains, yawning demonstratively when her gaze falls on Seiya's and Ai's clasped hands.

"Why do you call Tenoh's opera 'an opera'?" Shinichi asks Seiya.

"Because it is an opera?" Seiya throws him a bewildered look.

"Formally, it's a concert," Hino interjects. "But since Haruka called it an opera, I'd guess one can call it whatever one wants."

"No," Seiya shakes his head. "It's clearly an opera for me."

"It's a concert, Seiya-kun," Hino switches to Japanese to defend herself. "There is no opera for one singer and a piano."

"It depends on whether you value the form or the character of a musical piece more, I suppose," Seiya sighs. "For me, something which has the character of an opera is an opera, not a concert." Ending the discussion which seems to irritate him, he turns to Shinichi and Carrara. "We can let you out at your hotel if you like," he suggests, letting go of Ai's hand.

Both Shinichi and Carrara decline the offer so that the four of them are standing in the wind now, saying civil words of goodbye like strangers on their first acquaintance do.

"See you tomorrow for tea," Ai calmly says, "and please feel free to bring Mori if she has time."

It must have been either the urge to pay Seiya back for his switching act during the interrogation or the wish to ascertain that the grown-up Haibara Ai standing in front of him is real because Shinichi surprises himself when he steps forward and pulls her into a tight embrace, burying his face into her hair for a moment before he hurriedly lets go. She feels conspicuously different from the ten-year-old girl he carried in his arms back at Pandora's Box. But it is not the difference which throws him but the warm scent of her hair which vaguely reminds him of Seiya's, an unobtrusive but lingering perfume in which he can discern the fragrance of kinmoukusei with a note of orange blossom.

"Today," he corrects her. In response, she only stares at him with a confused expression on her face before turning away.

Seiya Kou, unfazed by Shinichi's action, has jumped into the backseat in an effortless smooth movement and then turns to her again with his outstretched hand, which she takes without hesitating.

Shinichi can still remember clearly what she told him when he once offered his hand to her to help her climb out of the car.

_"I may be sick, but I'm not dying."_

"Which one, do you think, is it?" he can suddenly hear Seiya's voice asking him. The singer is contemplating him with thoughtful and troubled eyes, and Shinichi can't tell whether Seiya's lack of anger means he is absolutely sure of Ai's feelings for him or whether he is simply not in love with her at all.

"Is it an opera or a concert?" Seiya asks again. "Is it the form or the character of a piece which is actually more important?"

"The character, in my opinion," Shinichi replies, realizing with a start what the singer is trying to say.

"Men," Hino sighs. "You're all the same."

"It's just like marriage," Seiya continues in a matter-of-fact tone. "For most people, it's the papers and the ring which count. For others, it's just the nature of the relationship and the feelings which really matter."

"What a pretty excuse for not marrying the woman you're living with," Shinichi murmurs. But the words get lost in the noise as Hino Rei has already started the engine.

Ai has been silent during the whole exchange and is now turning her attention to Hino Rei, who has started a monologue about the appalling weather. Unlike Seiya who casually bids Shinichi and Carrara goodbye, she doesn't even look back when the motorboat drives off. But when Shinichi puts his hands into his trouser pockets, he can feel the small card she has slipped into his left pocket when nobody was looking. Noticing that Carrara is still gazing after the boat, he steps back into the light of the street lamp and throws a quick glance at both sides of the card before stuffing it back into his pocket.

"Tenoh Akira."

Carelessly scribbled on the small white sheet of watercolour paper using a red marker (obviously not lightfast because the colour is already fading), the name has been written in same handwriting he saw in_ The Return of Sherlock Holmes_.

"A most charming couple, don't you think?" Carrara turns round, watching Shinichi's reaction attentively. "I like them a lot, both of them. I don't want to find out that he did something stupid tonight. Ruining a life like his because of love... It would be such a shame."

"Michiru Kaioh and Haruka Tenoh were a beautiful couple as well, but their lives were ruined, too. Whoever did it deserves to be locked up," Shinichi retorts, trying desperately to sound nonchalant. "I really don't care who."

The motorboat has almost disappeared from his sight when he notices that she — now only a tiny dark figure in the distance — has turned to look back at him. Next to her, Seiya Kou has turned round as well, both of them apparently fixing him with their gazes while their heads are slightly bent towards each other, their hair and foreheads almost touching, their outlines melting into each other in the darkness of the night...

They are talking about him.

For a moment, he is utterly baffled by their behaviour when Kino's comment about Kaioh's and Seiya's little flirt to aggravate Tenoh suddenly comes to mind.

What have you been thinking, he asks the image of Miyano Shiho in his mind. Don't you know how dangerous it is to play the same charade we excelled at with a notorious heartthrob like him? One day you will be murdered by his agent and his fans...

The singer's ringing laughter when he claimed that she was responsible for the contents of his pockets replays over and over in Shinichi's mind, irking him. Who is Seiya trying to tease this time by sharing his apartment with Ai and asking her to act as his girlfriend? After hearing from all of Seiya's friends about his purile pranks, Shinichi should have known better than to fall for their charade just because she accepted his hand and took his napkin. Frowning at the boat which is now out of sight, Shinichi is smouldering with anger at himself, wondering why, in the back of his mind, there is still this peculiar sense of foreboding, why a voice in his head tells him that his deduction doesn't sound right, and why his heart actually missed a beat because of their dumb and... aggravating... little game.

x.


	18. Part Two: One thing is clear

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

**From now on, my fics will be unbetaed because my dear ex-beta SN has decided to leave the fanfic world. Since I've already had to part with two betas I really enjoyed working with, I've decided to be independent and let my readers see the unbetaed version of my ramblings. XD**

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**18. One thing is clear...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

One thing is clear, Lele thinks while watching the motorboat disappear into the night: Seiya Kou has never considered sharing his girlfriend with Shinichi Kudo as Lele mistakenly assumed. The singer has acknowledged the little flirt between Kudo and his girlfriend with the composure of someone who knows he has nothing to fear, keeping up a pleasant facade to spare her a scene until he could no longer contain himself. Taken out of context, Kudo's impulsive hug was only a harmless and quite amiable gesture towards an old friend or ex-lover Kudo hasn't seen for years. But after all the overt amorous advances Kudo made to Shiho Miyano during the interrogation, the hug must have been the last straw, and Lele can hardly blame Seiya Kou for feeling the need to state his opinion clearly for once. He did it in such a decent and classy manner as well, making use of the discussion about the name of the opera to put Kudo in his place. The _Opera_ (formally only a collection of songs) is called an opera because it has all the most important defining characteristics of an opera, was basically what Seiya Kou said — just like a long-time love affair resembles a marriage when the couple is living together in a monogamous and committed relationship like theirs. Kudo can always visit them for lunch or for tea as her old friend and former classmate, but a happy relationship consisting of two usually doesn't need a third party.

And yet, Lele can't help but feel sorry for the detective whose passionate nature — the only weakness in his character Lele can detect until now — reminds Lele of himself when he was younger. In addition, Lele has become even more apprehensive about Seiya Kou whose scheming personality (everything other than the impulsive character his friends have credited him with!) has once again revealed itself. There is something devious about his strategy to get rid of his rival by faking acquiescence and then picking up the gauntlet in such a sneaky way before they left. You can flirt with her as much as you want, he might as well have said. It doesn't bother me in the least since tonight, she will be with me.

Anyhow, regardless of their faults, they are the kind of couple Lele doesn't want to separate even though he fears it can't be avoided if the autopsy results come back positive for poisoning. From all the people who could have murdered Haruka Tenoh, Seiya Kou is the only person with a motive. Trying to steal his beloved girlfriend from him with considerable success (the technicians said Shiho Miyano went out with Haruka Tenoh whenever Seiya Kou was busy rehearsing his musicals), ridiculing him with an unsingable song cycle called opera, luring his jealous agent to Venice to pressure his girlfriend into moving out of their shared apartment... Considered separately from each other, none of these things appear bad enough to provide a motive for a murder. But people have already been murdered for much smaller reasons, and Haruka Tenoh was continually provoking Seiya Kou into a fight, as Rei Hino said...

"Come on, it's cold," Lele jabs his elbow at the detective who is still standing under the street lamp, unmoving like a bronze statue. Despite wearing only a thin dinner suit, he doesn't seem to freeze in the biting November wind. Nonetheless, he is so lost in thought that Lele has the impression he will stay here until tomorrow morning if Lele doesn't help him.

"Let's go back to the opera house to fetch your jacket or your coat," Lele continues to prod at the young man. "Your coat is still in the cloakroom, isn't it? It's late. I'm sure Alessi and the portiere would like to go to bed as well." As Shinichi Kudo only gazes at him in abstraction and doesn't react, Lele adds in a soothing voice: "Your fiancée is waiting for you in the hotel, isn't she? She will—"

"But Ran isn't my fiancée," the detective obstinately denies. "I already told you that we aren't a couple."

x.

One of the greatest problems an investigator must always fight against — Shinichi tries to get his point across to Carrara on the way back to the opera house — is one's own tendency to draw conclusions from flimsy evidence. Ran and he aren't a couple just as "Shiho Miyano" and he have never been in a romantic relationship. "Shiho" (Ai's real name sounds somewhat unsuitable for her in Shinichi's ears!) is only a friend who had left Japan so suddenly that meeting her again in a situation like this completely threw him off balance. Moreover, he is naturally worried about her now that he knows she is sharing the apartment with an infamous womanizer like Seiya Kou.

"But she seems to have tamed him, as you said," Carrara throws him another pitying glance. "And since they look perfectly happy with each other, I'd think twice before visiting them for tea if I were you."

Seeing the utter futility of trying to convince Carrara that he is not at all in love with Ai (who belongs to the unaccommodating and complicated type of woman he will always steer clear of), Shinichi bites back the rejoinder which has already sprung to his lips that Carrara shows more interest in a fictitious love triangle than in the mystery. Instead, he rapidly goes through the key questions which remain unanswered at this point of the investigation and counts his own steps until he has cooled down enough to ponder over Ai's disappearance, her "sort-of" friendship with Tenoh Haruka and her romantically-flavoured attachment to her fake employer.

What is she doing in Venice out of all places? Seiya said that they met at Tenoh's house although, in view of Seiya's acting skills and his penchant for lying with every breath he draws, Shinichi knows better than to take his assertions at face value. From Ai's reaction to Seiya's claim that he would never have passed the IQ test at Infinity, Shinichi infers that Seiya was actually accepted into the academy and changed his mind before entering it. The school Kino, Aino, Seiya and Chiba Usagi went to was most probably Juuban high school because Chiba mentioned that they lived in Azabu Juuban where Infinity was also situated. Of course one can't rule out the possibility that they all went to another high school and Chiba and his wife only moved to Juuban after their marriage, but checking out Seiya's education shouldn't pose a problem for Shinichi because the internet must be full of Seiya's fan sites. If Shinichi is lucky, the scandal with Chiba's wife won't be difficult to dig up either.

As things are, Shinichi strongly suspects that Seiya knows about Stinger just as he knows about the Organization and Infinity's link to it. If Seiya really met Ai for the first time at Tenoh's house (in Japan?) as he claimed, one can safely assume that Ai had been seeking Tenoh's or Kaioh's help to leave Japan in secret when Seiya, who had been staying there as a guest, asked her to go to Venice with him. The opposite could also be true and Ai actually asked Seiya to bring her to Venice because she wanted to meet Tenoh. This is an even more likely hypothesis since — according to Kino — Tenoh and Kaioh had already moved to Venice at the time of Ai's disappearance.

How did she manage to leave Pandora's Box without a boat? Hattori must have saved her life by putting her into one of the wooden boxes and leaving the ship with her before it exploded. It was the only sensible decision in their situation since staying on Pandora's Box would have meant certain death while abandoning the ship in that way left them a minimal chance of reaching the shore alive. If Shinichi couldn't come back in time for some reason, Hattori told him when they parted, he would find a way to save them until the FBI arrived...

_"Don't worry. I promise I'll come back in time no matter what happens. I'm too busy to attend your funerals, after all."_

There they are again, the memories which always assail Shinichi whenever he doesn't expect them, accompanied by the sense of guilt he has never managed to get rid of. As a rule, Shinichi doesn't allow himself to waste time and energy by dwelling on old regrets. But tonight, after this somewhat disappointing reunion with Ai, he can't help but hark back to the past and muse on how different things could have been if it hadn't been for a few unfortunate coincidences and wrong decisions. If Hattori and Shinichi had taken Vodka with them instead of leaving him in the log cabin, if Shinichi had resisted the temptation of backing-up Pandora's Box and simply terminated the whole enterprise, if he had reacted a bit faster when Vodka attacked him, if he hadn't trusted Ran's watch and double-checked the time, if he had told Ran the truth instead of lies... Would Hattori still be alive?

x.

About three years and eleven months ago, Shinichi woke up in the woods with excruciating headaches, three large bruises on his back, his left shoulder and his left arm, what felt like a few broken ribs, a broken watch and the realization that, after hitting his head against the boulder he was presently lying on, he must have passed out for who knew how long. Opening two capsules of APAH and swallowing their contents without water, he gave himself a few seconds to peer over the precipice — a black wolf-shaped creature under the full moon — and to assess the current situation.

The man in black under the cliff was, without doubt, dead, as no human being could have survived such a fall. And even though Shinichi was convinced that every human being had an essential right to live, he didn't feel particularly saddened by Vodka's undignified final exit after the latter had tried to shoot him and wounded Ai in the nearby log cabin. Having been Gin's direct subordinate for many years, Vodka would have made an important witness in court. But losing his balance and toppling off a cliff while trying to club another person to death was actually a most fitting ending for the secretary of the much-feared "second crow." In a sense, Shinichi was relieved because the circumstances around Vodka's death enabled him to abandon the corpse and sprint in the direction of the village with a clear conscience. Additionally, he was so terrified of being late that he wasn't even surprised when he spotted Ran in front of the door of a farmhouse although she was supposed to be staying at Toyama's in Osaka.

"Shinichi! What are you doing here? I thought you're in Kyoto! And what happened to your watch? How on earth did you manage to smash it like that?"

"Oh, it's... nothing worth mentioning." Shinichi anxiously glanced at Ran's watch which said nine thirty-five and ascertained with satisfaction that he had only passed out for a few minutes. "I accidentally stumbled over a root and tore my shirt on a twig when I fell." It was most disturbing how easily the lies came to his lips these days. But telling her he had been attacked by Vodka, who — for an unknown reason — had managed to escape from the log cabin despite having been neatly tied to the heater by Hattori and him, would only trigger a chain of further questions he couldn't answer now.

She couldn't believe he was just as clumsy as Eisuke-kun, Ran exclaimed. But was that blood on his shirt?

It wasn't his but the blood of a victim of his recent case, Shinichi reassured her. He only got a few bruises and scratches, nothing worth mentioning. However, he had to give someone a call at ten fourty sharp. Did she know where a public phone box was?

He could call from the farmhouse where she was staying if he wanted, as it was only a ten-to-fifteen-minute walk from here. But why didn't he use his mobile phone? Was anyone murdered in the woods? He shouldn't walk around in the village looking like this! And where was Hattori?

"Hattori will be staying in Tokyo until tomorrow night and my phone is dead," Shinichi grimaced when Ran fished her mobile phone out of her pocket. "I'd rather not use your phone either. It's a long story I really can't explain to you now. Let's search for a public phone box, shall we?"

Naturally, Shinichi could have double-checked the time on Ran's mobile phone but, assuming that the vintage watch she got from her mother kept good time because she always took care that it was properly wound, he didn't consider the idea even once. Deciding to let Vodka's corpse lie where it was until he had rescued Ai and Hattori because he didn't want the inhabitants of the village to gather at the log cabin before the whole operation against "the seven crows" was over, Shinichi suggested after finding an old public phone box that Ran and he roamed the shore near the woods together until ten fourty, claiming he didn't want to disturb his "client" before the agreed time.

It was a remarkably beautiful but windy night. And as Shinichi was walking beside Ran, silently listening to her story of her father's old mahjong friend who invited them to his farmhouse for the weekend and who, just like the Sleeping Kogoro, had passed out from their drinking binge, his mind wound back to Ai and Hattori who had been squabbling ceaselessly ever since they left Paris and who were probably sulking at each other this very moment, impatiently waiting for his return so that they no longer had to endure their involuntary tête-à-tête. The two of them hadn't interacted with each other very often before they all set out to secure Pandora's Box, and their bickering — the first indications of a tentative friendship? — simultaneously amused and irritated Shinichi.

_"Of course we can continue as planned! It's just a tiny flesh wound, really nothing worth mentioning. If it's only for a few hours, I'm sure I'll be alright. Just come back in time, will you?" _Ai had shot Shinichi a friendly threatening glare before pointing an accusing finger at the boxes stuffed full of printed copies of the Organization's documents._ "It's not my dream to be blown up with their files because I'd like my tragic demise to happen in a romantically beautiful setting." _

_Wasn't the sea beautiful enough for her, _Hattori had countered, much to Shinichi's exasperation._ Getting blown up for the sake of humanity in the middle of the ocean wasn't a mundane death in any aspect. Even a tiresome spoiled princess like chibi nee-san couldn't demand a nicer ending. _

_It wasn't picturesque at all to bite the dust among computer cables and plastic folders, and it was even less acceptable to die together with a mystery-obsessed idiot who still believed in prophetic dreams and lucky charms and was proud of his sing-song Kansai dialect she couldn't put up with in her condition. She would be perfectly alright if he shut up and let her suffer in peace. _In answer to Hattori's remark that there was nothing he liked less than sitting with the Queen of Gloom in absolute silence, she suggested that he study the files in the kitchen until Shinichi returned. _"Or just jump into the sea if you prefer that. I bet the water is pleasant enough for a swim."_

"What are you grinning about?" Ran gave Shinichi a puzzled look.

"Sorry, I was distracted. So you're going to stay here for the weekend. How do you like the isle?"

She loved it although there was a rather creepy incident tonight which had shaken her: Chasing after the dog she had volunteered to walk out, she discovered a small log cabin on the Werewolf Cliff from which she heard odd sounds reminding her of the muffled cries of a human. In spite of her fear of ghosts and werewolves, she knocked down the door to the cabin and found a short, burly man in black who looked strangely familiar to her. Since there was blood on the floor and the man was tied to the heater, she deduced that the poor man had been attacked and robbed. Of course she didn't hesitate but immediately freed him, whereupon the thankless stranger, much to her surprise, didn't express any gratitude at his rescue but only urged her not to tell anyone about the incidence before ushering her out of his cabin. Disturbed about the incident, she tried to reason with him, telling him that what happened to him was actually a matter for the police. But in the end he managed to convince her to keep the matter to herself with the story that the person who had whacked him into unconsciousness (with the blood-smeared raven sculpture which was now lying on the floor) and tying him up like that was none other than his hot-headed wife who was out of her mind because of a tragic misunderstanding. He was also sure that said wife — insecure and extremely jealous — would return home soon as she always did, which was why he didn't want Ran to stay in his cabin for fear of further unpleasant scenes.

Understandably, Ran was in a dilemma now because she was no longer sure that his story was the truth. Going to the police, however, entailed creating a scandal in the village which would only make the miserable life of that married couple even more miserable if the things the man told her were true. What did Shinichi think about the little mystery? Should she go the police or not? She actually went out for the second time tonight because she hoped that a fresh breath of air would help her clear her head and come to a decision.

"I don't think you should go to the police and rush things," Shinichi hastily advised her. "Just wait until tomorrow and I'll look into this matter for you after solving my recent case."

Ran looked suitably confused at his lack of interest. Nevertheless, Shinichi didn't want to present her with a more elaborate lie and, to his consolation, her joy of seeing him again distracted her from the strange case whose "culprits" were Hattori and Shinichi himself.

At ten fourty, Shinichi stepped into the public phone box and dialed the number he knew by heart with a sense of great relief. He almost wished he hadn't promised Hattori and Ai that he would wait until ten fourty to call Mr. James Black to make sure that the FBI couldn't arrive before the ship exploded. In retrospect, he should never have accepted Ai's plan no matter how convenient it sounded. Her wounds undoubtedly hurt although they weren't fatal. And even though he knew she had an astonishing tolerance to physical pain, he couldn't get the image of her blood-smeared cardigan and her feverishly gleaming eyes out of his mind.

"If the explosion was scheduled to take place at half past eleven, it's too late for us to step in now, isn't it?" asked Mr. Black's skeptical voice. He was far too perceptive not to notice that Shinichi was playing by his own rules. But since everything went according to Shinichi's — Hattori's and Ai's — plans, Shinichi was confident enough to keep up the pretense despite Mr. Black's disapproval.

"I've found a motorboat I can use to fetch them. I can make it until a quarter past eleven. But we also need an ambulance—"

"It's eleven fourty-five p.m. on my watch, meitantei-san," Mr. Black's tone changed from skeptical to genuinely surprised. "If the explosion was scheduled at half past eleven, it must have happened fifteen minutes ago."

No, that's impossible, Shinichi wanted to say. However, he felt suddenly too sick to utter a sound. When he stormed out of the phone box and wordlessly took Ran's mobile phone out of her pocket to check the time, the screen showed him that Mr. Black was right.

x.

The fact that — unlike him — Hattori did save Ai as promised raise questions which disturb Shinichi in a way he would never have imagined. If Hattori had somehow managed to save Ai (who, wounded or not wounded, could never have swum even for a minute in that weather), Shinichi can't think of a reason why Hattori couldn't have saved himself. One box might have been too small for both of them, but Hattori could easily have tied two boxes together with the ropes he could find on the ship in abundance...

For the first time since he saw Ai again, Shinichi is struck by the thought that — just like he doesn't know how she survived while Hattori died — she still doesn't know the reason why he couldn't fetch them. In his made-up story, he and she have talked about that night so many times that he has taken her understanding for granted. The realization that she must still be in the dark about Ran's slow watch and might resent him for not keeping his promise explains her rather cool reaction to his hug. Or was she so taken aback at his sudden outburst that she didn't know how to react? They both know he usually doesn't hug friends and would probably never have embraced her under different circumstances...

In any case, Ai must have planned her vanishing act even before Hattori, Shinichi and she left Tokyo for Paris, as evidenced by the one redundant antidote she left in her drawer and the other pill she must have hidden from him which she used to turn back to her adult state. Who or what was she running from so that she either didn't dare to write or only wrote two letters before she — despite the lack of an answer to her letters — cut off all contact? She had become increasingly paranoid about the telephone line and the internet since she learned from him that they had been watched. On the other hand, hiding in Venice in Seiya Kou's apartment is an idea only Suzuki Sonoko can get. The longer he thinks about it, the less Shinichi can believe that Ai had been fleeing from danger because she wouldn't have kept her real name and lived with Seiya Kou out of all people if she had wanted to go into hiding.

The turnstile was immediately released when Carrara and Shinichi arrived at the exit. When they pass the counter, Guido Moretti darts both of them a reproachful look before he demonstratively devotes his attention to the theatre programme in his hands.

"Are you sure that Seiya passed you twice tonight?" Shinichi asks.

"Not twice. Three times. He just went past me for the third time when he left a few minutes ago," the portiere replies, tight-lipped and defiant.

But that's improbable, Shinichi thinks as Carrara and he pass the backstage area for another time and climb down the stage to the concert hall. A conspicuous celebrity like Seiya couldn't have returned through the main entrance without anyone noticing him, especially since he must have walked past the left entrance to the concert hall where Alessandra DiGiorgio — a fan of his — was standing, keeping an eye out for him as she openly admitted to her Haibara-Ai-lookalike friend (Nadia Gorowitz?) during the talk Shinichi overheard when he returned from the public phone box.

The ushers closed the doors to the hall before the second act and kept them shut during the whole performance. Since nobody saw Seiya in the concert hall, he must have returned at the beginning of the second interval unnoticed by the ushers and Chiba Mamoru, evaded Luigi Gentile and even Ai who was searching for him, passed the empty stage unseen by all the ushers and the technicians for whom he was an unwilling object of infatuation and gossip, climbed the stage, and walked to his dressing room without drawing the attention of either Hino Rei or Kino Makoto. During that time, Tenoh was in her own dressing room, suffering from headaches which might have been the major cause of her clumsy arpeggios during the second act. Kino and Hino were having tea in the backstage café until Hino returned to her dressing room to study her scores and Kino called Aino Minako for a prolonged chat. When Tenoh opened the door to the backstage café, Seiya left the opera house again through the exit...

Even though this scenario is not absolutely impossible, it is highly improbable and just absurd as Seiya's behaviour throughout the whole interrogation.

_"Did you give her the painkillers?"_

_"No, I didn't visit her after I returned. We met for the last time before the first act in the corridor."_

A lie told with such an honest expression that Shinichi would have swallowed it if it hadn't been for the witness accounts of the other suspects and Seiya's own tendency to contradict himself. Seiya must have seen Tenoh when she opened the door to the backstage café to ask Kino for the water while he was going out for the second time. However, it could be a misunderstanding and Seiya only omitted the fact that he did see Tenoh because he really didn't talk to her and, according to his understanding, didn't meet her. One also can't rule out the possibility that Seiya's statement was actually true and Kino's was false. But what reason should Kino have for lying about having seen Seiya through the door of the café just when Tenoh opened it?

"He is an intimidating man, Signor Seiya Kou," Carrara muses. "The portiere obviously fears him more than us." Receiving no reaction from Shinichi, he insistently presses on: "Signor Seiya Kou also didn't lose his temper when I provoked him as one could have expected. It seems to me he can keep himself in check much better than his friends claim."

"He is an impressive actor," Shinichi listlessly responds. While Shinichi shares Carrara's view that Seiya is not the carefree, light-hearted man he pretends to be, Shinichi doesn't think "intimidating" is the right word to describe a person who lets Ai kick him under the table without showing the slightest hint of annoyance. To all appearances, Seiya lets Ai kick him regularly.

"But why were you so interested in their handwritings? Do you believe in graphology?" Carrara jokes as Shinichi puts on his coat. The commissario is apparently trying to distract Shinichi from some imagined heartache with his silly questions. In a way, his concern is almost touching, and Shinichi decides to put the sympathy Carrara has for him to good use.

He is only comparing their handwritings to the one he found in _The Return of Sherlock Holmes_ on Tenoh's bookshelf because he is curious, Shinichi explains. The books are an exclusive hand-bound edition he has never seen before, and he thinks it's peculiar that Tenoh kept such an expensive and personal gift in her dressing room and not in her apartment. Although this little mystery probably doesn't have anything to do with the case, the Sherlock Holmes painting intrigues him for the same reason. When will Tenoh's personal possessions be sent to Kaioh Michiru at the latest, tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon? He would like to pay Kaioh a visit because he wants to have another look at the painting under better lighting.

"This afternoon if Signora Kaioh doesn't object to it," Carrara rolls his eyes. "Don't you ever get tired?"

"You said you were a fan of Tenoh," Shinichi ignores Carrara's question, which he takes as a compliment. "Do you know anything about her family and her background?"

She didn't like to talk about her family, Carrara tells him, and the press wasn't particularly interested in her family background. Both her parents were said to be of mixed race, her father a Franco-American and her mother an Italian-Japanese, which is why Signora Tenoh was a rather polyglot person. Her mother died when she was very young so that she was raised by her father in France until she was fourteen and moved to Japan for unknown reasons. There she started her glittering racing career and, at sixteen or seventeen, attended Infinity with Kaioh, who was already her girlfriend when they entered the academy.

"There are a lot of legends about the two of them, you know," Carrara gushes as they are once again walking through the backstage area with officer Alessi in tow. "Love at first sight that prevailed after they both cut the ties to their families for each other, dramatic jealousy scenes in hotels where Signora Tenoh flirted with the staff, another girl that tried to kill herself out of unrequited love to Tenoh, things which are probably nothing but idle rumours. But it's true that they are raising an adopted daughter together since I spotted her with them in the cinema once when she was holidaying in Venice. The little girl is said to be very frail and is living at their house in Japan with a good friend of theirs because they don't want the press to bother her."

And what's the name of the adopted daughter, Shinichi asks, thinking of the card Ai slipped into his trouser pocket.

"I don't know. They didn't reveal it during their interviews, saying that they wanted their shy princess to live a normal life despite her celebrity parents. If anyone were really interested in the identity of the girl, the reporters would already have revealed her name since she is Professor Tomoe's only daughter. But apparently, nobody cared about her enough to investigate."

"Professor Tomoe's daughter? I suppose Tenoh and Kaioh adopted her when the professor was admitted to his mental hospital? Or did they take her out of the orphanage some time afterwards?"

"They adopted her immediately after the mad professor burnt down Infinity, according to the article I read. I remember I was surprised that Signora Tenoh would so readily adopt the child of the man responsible for her brother's death. But then again Signor Chiba said that she was a very generous person."

"So Tenoh's brother died in the fire?"

"Yes, he was searching for her at Infinity, so I heard, and was trapped in one of Professor Tomoe's laboratories when the buildings were set ablaze. It was during one of Signora Tenoh's last races."

"Do you know what his name was?"

"Akira. It's a very nice-sounding name to European ears, otherwise I'd already have forgotten it. But I don't know anything about him except that he was only few years older than her and lived in Paris with their father. They must have been very close because she quit racing after he died... To be fair, Professor Tomoe must have thought that no one was on campus when he burnt down Infinity because Signora Tenoh was a star whose races the students at Infinity never missed."

Raising his hand to say goodbye to the portiere (who, after releasing the turnstile for them once again, has just put on his coat to leave as well), Carrara opens the door and waits until Alessi passes before letting it fall into Shinichi's face.

"Still, I don't think many people would have forgiven the professor for what he did and readily adopted his daughter to spare her the orphanage," he continues as Shinichi joins him and Alessi in the campo. "I thought the girl was very attached to both Signora Kaioh and Signora Tenoh when I saw them together. No matter how difficult and tyrannical Signora Tenoh might have been, her behaviour towards the little girl completely redeemed her shortcomings."

"He lived in Paris with their father, so you said... Do you know what the name of Tenoh's father was and what he was doing for a living?" Shinichi asks with a sense of foreboding.

"Some fans claim her father was a fencing teacher. But I don't know what his name was since I've never been interested in fencing."

So who was the mysterious French agent of the FBI who had insider information about Pandora's Box he only wanted to share with Kudo Shinichi, a Japanese detective, rather than with another FBI agent, Ai had asked with mistrust. And Shinichi can still remember the way her eyes widened and her brows furrowed although, at that time, Shinichi had attributed her fleeting expression of disbelief to her amazement at the occupation of Mr. Jean Black, Mr. James' Black's cousin, who was a fencing teacher of Franco-American origin.

x.

**A.N.: **Sorry for updating so slowly but I was really busy and ill into a bargain.

As some people might have noticed, I've posted both "Encounter in Venice" and "Ghost at Twilight" on as well (my name on that site is_ FidgetFidgets_). (I really like it for many reasons, especially because it lets one download the whole fic as a mobi, epub, pdf and html file.)

Regarding the "odd" things in Encounter like why Shiho doesn't grieve for Haruka, why she wrote two letters before writing the mails which "got lost" or why Shinichi thinks Seiya managed to evade Gentile when he returned to the opera house (although it was Gentile who told the police that Seiya came through the main entrance): they are all part of the mystery/plot. As for the lack of racism in my fic: I simply ignored the issue since I think classical music fans usually aren't very racist towards good musicians. XD

In other news: _holmesfreak1412_ has borrowed the APAH painkillers for her fic "The Cure" (which is, despite its evil plot, a very interesting read XD). I only wanted to point out that I really don't mind her borrowing APAH (although the side effects APAH has in her fic are her original idea) and that the universe of "The Cure" doesn't have anything to do with the ones in "Encounter in Venice" and "Ghost at Twilight."

Re: Aya: Thanks a lot for pointing out the redundant "to" to me. I don't know why but no matter how often I reread a chapter before posting it, I will always find new mistakes and typos after posting it. Your theory is really funny (especially considering the title of that chapter XD).

Re: Saeg: Thanks a lot for the nice review. :D And you don't have to know anything about BSSM to understand this fic. :)


	19. Part Two: Embarrassing as it is

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**19. Embarrassing as it is...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Embarrassing as it is, Shinichi has to admit that, now that he finds himself alone on Carrara's brown bed sofa with a massive pile of magazines featuring Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru, the only thing he can force himself to do is to scribble into his notebook with the initial goal of keeping a record of this case for later reference although what he is actually doing is jotting down a list of perfectly valid reasons why Ai cannot be in love with Seiya Kou.

First, she has never shown any interest in idols and celebrities in general with the exception of Higo, who is a soccer star with top-notch work ethics and not a silly actor with no sense of fashion and a propensity to rebel against authority even in situations which require seriousness. Second, she was visibly irritated by her "employer" and kicked him under the table whenever he fixed his greedy gaze longingly on her décolleté or her lips. Third, there would be no reason for Seiya to pretend that he was suffering from his unrequited love if they're really an item. And even without all the above-mentioned reasons, Shinichi can't imagine Ai to fall in love with anyone because she has always been so aloof and distant, so extremely self-contained and untouchable.

Having convinced himself that what she feels for her friend can only be the fondness she feels for stray cats, Shinichi grudgingly sets about the task of taking notes of the case when he is once again overcome with anger at the memory of how she let the singer wrap her scarf around her neck and help her into her coat, how she clung to his arm and accepted his hand as a matter of course as if it was something she was accustomed to. Even if their relationship is only a charade, it has progressed to the stage in which the charade happens naturally without any detectable effort. And seeing the knowing way they touched each other when she leant her head against Seiya's shoulder and he responded by wrapping his arm around her waist, Shinichi would have believed that they are really a couple if it hadn't been for Seiya's unpredictable behaviour during the interrogation...

Since he apparently can't force himself to focus on the details of the case (and perhaps his body finally needs a short rest now that it is already past two a.m.), Shinichi decides to lie down on the bed sofa and leaf through the magazines instead.

When he opens the first magazine to the first page, however, Shinichi is struck by the alternative theory that it might have been Seiya who has successfully kept up the appearance of friendship while Ai was actually the one who jeopardized their charade after Shinichi trapped her with the napkin. Taiki Kou's message could have meant that Seiya should keep up the pretense until Taiki has found a way to prevent Tenoh's letter (or mail?) from reaching their agent. And perhaps Seiya hasn't behaved like himself at all throughout the whole interview from the moment he waited for them in front of the backstage café to the moment Ai and he left with the boat so that Shinichi has actually never seen the real Seiya Kou.

Highly improbable as this hypothesis is, it would actually explain everything: from Ai's abnormally amiable behaviour towards Seiya to her open display of affection towards him (after she realized that it was futile to hide their relationship from Shinichi and Carrara) to her understandable irritation when her eccentric boyfriend stubbornly continued to deny their relationship although she had already given up the charade. And the realization that Ai might be in hiding and be living with the idol in Venice just because she is head over heals in love with the guy unsettles Shinichi so much that he instantly dismisses this theory.

He is jumping to conclusions, Shinichi realizes, although he usually never jumps to conclusions. What's wrong with him tonight, he wonders as he is pacing the small living room in an attempt of putting the image of their intertwined fingers out of his mind. Accustomed to impersonating Ai, he must have identified himself so much with her that he has begun to take an unhealthy interest in her life which borders on obsession. Even if she was besotted with a cocky womanizer like Seiya (which is highly unlikely due to the aforementioned reasons), Shinichi knows that her love life should be strictly private and no subject for his investigations. So why does he feel like running to their apartment and putting both Seiya and her through the wringer so that he can finally say with conviction that there has never been anything between them? Is it really jealousy as Carrara has claimed? Or is it only his protectiveness because, after years of cooperation and companionship, he has begun to consider her a close friend although they aren't even on a first name basis?

Carrara is already fast asleep, as evidenced by the snores Shinichi can hear from the bedroom. Taking advantage of the commissario's pity for him, Shinichi has invited himself over to Carrara's place under the pretense of having a look at Carrara's collection of magazines featuring Tenoh. In reality, Shinichi is waiting for the results of the autopsy because he cannot be sure that Carrara would really inform him about them as soon as he gets them from the medical examiner. The sympathy Carrara feels for Shinichi tonight might have dissolved into thin air by tomorrow after a good night's sleep. And it is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to information on a case Shinichi is not authorized to investigate.

It was an attempt to "kill two birds with one stone," as Gentile would have put it. Doing a bit of research on Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru while waiting for the results of the fingerprints and the autopsy. Shinichi hasn't called Ran because she is probably fast asleep and he didn't want to wake her up just to tell her that he wasn't going to return to the hotel tonight. Apart from that, it is much easier for Shinichi to work when Ran is not around because, the less questions Ran asks, the less lies Shinichi will have to tell.

But what has he been doing instead of conducting his research after Carrara has excused himself to get some shut-eye? Collecting reasons why Ai cannot be in love. And what's even worse, he feels an overwhelming urge to google couple jewellery on his personal mobile phone instead of continuing the investigation.

Once again Shinichi takes a magazine into his hands and — ignoring the sense of dread which fills him whenever he thinks of Ai's small snug-fit bracelet — tries to focus on Tenoh Haruka's elegantly handsome figure on a motorcycle advertisement when the loud ringing of one of his mobile phones (the phone he usually uses to call his colleagues, friends, and allies) makes him jump.

"Long time no see," says the familiar voice on the other end of the line, and Shinichi smiles at the similarity between the two reddish-haired people who have said the same sentence to him during the same night.

"I gather this is urgent," Shinichi remarks with some surprise. Even if Hakuba had expected Shinichi to be in Tokyo, this would be too early for a random catch-up call.

"It is. Otherwise I wouldn't have ringed you out of bed at two twenty-two and thirty-two seconds. But I don't think we should skip the formalities. How do you like Venice? I hope you're having a great time with Mori-san. Your professor hinted that you two are trying to patch things up in the city of love."

This is certainly the very first time that Shinichi has heard Hakuba's voice tremble. As the stoic detective distinguishes himself from all the other former high-school detectives Shinichi has met through his unemotional nature, Shinichi infers that someone close to Hakuba must have recently passed away, most probably either his elderly housekeeper or Watson, his old female falcon.

"The city of love and death, you mean. Ran and I like it enough to stay for another week," Shinichi replies, attentively listening to the background noises. Hakuba is apparently lodging in an industrial part of Venice, as far as Shinichi can tell from the background noises and the landline number on the screen. The dilapidated old bed or chair Hakuba must be sitting on has also just given an ominous sound as Hakuba shifted his position. "On the long run, it's not my cup of tea, though. Too much water and too many bridges. But you don't seem to enjoy your stay." Confident that his deductions are right, Shinichi calmly continues: "Doesn't Scotland Yard pay you enough so that you have to make do with a small pension in Mestre?" In Shinichi's estimation, Hakuba has always had a weakness for luxury and romance despite his philosophical demeanour.

"I'm moving to the Gritty tomorrow and will be staying in Venice until Sunday or Monday," Hakuba declares. As expected, it had to be one of the most expensive hotels in Venice, Shinichi thinks with a grin. "If Mori-san and you would be so kind as to sacrifice an hour or two of your time for me, I'd like us to meet up this evening since we have a lot of catching up to do."

"What happened?" Shinichi asks, tired of the formalities.

"Watson has been shot," Hakuba says through clenched teeth, and the bed gives another unpromising sound as Hakuba gives a heavy sigh.

"Who would do such a thing?" Shinichi exclaims, dismayed at the viciousness of the atrocity. There is no point in shooting an old falcon that is already living on borrowed time. Without his companion, Hakuba seems incomplete.

He hasn't been able to get a hold of the culprit yet, Hakuba groans, no longer inclined to hide his fury and frustration. Luckily, Watson will survive although the doctors are still uncertain whether she will ever be able to fly again. Hakuba's housekeeper has brought her to Kuroba's to recover while Hakuba is now hunting "the little scumbag who has shot her."

According to Hakuba's deductions, _he_ is in Venice at the moment. A dark handsome young man who seems to have turned the heads of all the witnesses Hakuba has talked to until now. "He is in his mid-twenties, moderately tall, lean, and athletic, has short black hair, hazel-blue eyes and a very gentle voice. They all found him irresistibly charming. The name he used in London was Black. But a waitress of the French restaurant where he had dinner on Monday night told me that he speaks colloquial, accent-free French and that he told her his name was Akira Tenoh."

Naturally, Tenoh Haruka's name sprang to mind when Hakuba learned that Mr. Akira Tenoh has embarked on a non-stop flight to Venice. Being the bloodhound he is whenever he faces a real challenge, Hakuba followed the trail to Venice and arrived tonight at ten fourty-seven p.m. and fourty-five seconds. (The plane arrived twenty-two minutes and fourty-five seconds late.) According to what Hakuba could find out until now, a Signor Jean Black arrived in Venice on Wednesday at nine thirty p.m. However, he seemed to have disappeared completely after telling a stewardess during a short flirt that he would be staying in Mestre for a few nights and watch _The Phantom of the Opera_ before going to Tokyo on Monday.

"Before my flight, I called your landline and learned from your professor that you'd be attending the world premiere of Tenoh Haruka's first opera. I suppose you're about to solve the mystery of her sudden death. It's all over the internet."

"I'm still waiting for the results of the autopsy, and I don't think I can tell you more about Tenoh Akira than you already know," Shinichi evasively answers. "I only know he is Tenoh Haruka's older brother, who died about seven or eight years ago."

"He died in a fire eight years ago when Professor Tomoe, Tenoh Haruka's mentor, burnt down Infinity, according to my informants," Hakuba says with an air of smugness which Hattori once claimed to be similar to Shinichi's. "But I'm not calling you to ask you about Tenoh Haruka's brother but about her father, M Jean Black. Isn't he a fencing teacher of Franco-American origin? I remember the Detective of the West and you had spent a few days holidaying in Paris with the little reddish-haired girl before we all met up in Osaka. I also remember Hattori-san mentioned fencing when I asked him what the three of you had been doing in Paris. Was M Jean Black an informant of yours? And what does Pandora's Box have to do with this?"

He doesn't know about any connection between their recent cases and Pandora's Box, Shinichi replies. At present, all he can tell Hakuba is that M Jean Black can't be the man who shot Watson, not only because M Black would have had to look over twenty years younger than his age but also because he has already been dead for three years.

"Murdered?"

"No, suicide. After the downfall of the Organization, he cut his wrist to Chopin's Préludes on his forty-seventh birthday."

"Are you sure it was suicide?" asks Hakuba's skeptical voice.

"It certainly seems so. There was nothing which suggested murder. And I know the investigators. I don't think they've overlooked anything."

"Shuu" and Mr. James Black himself have looked into the case to ascertain that it was really suicide, according to Jodie-sensei. And while there was nothing which would have appeased them more than catching a murderer they could blame his death on, everything pointed towards suicide although there was no suicide note. There were only M Jean Black's diaries, which strongly indicated that the humorous and energetic fencing teacher had been suffering from a severe depression for many years.

_As a revenge for the murder of my wife. _Shinichi can still remember how the tall, aquiline sportsman bit his lower lips at the remembrance. _She belonged to the seven crows who guarded Pandora's Box. She was executed because she tried to leave the Organization after our marriage... I didn't know about her past before I found parts of her body with the seven crow's emblem burned on her skin._

"Have you already got the results of the fingerprints?" Hakuba asks Shinichi.

"Don't tell me that you already know them," Shinichi gives a disbelieving laugh. Hakuba's efficiency sometimes takes on scary dimensions.

An informant of his regularly meets up with one of the forensics people to watch Gintama online on livestream, Hakuba gleefully explains. "They also chatted about work tonight and the forensics man hinted that there was a conspicuous lack of fingerprints in Tenoh-san's room."

"No fingerprints at all?" Shinichi frowns. Carrara is going to be livid when he learns about the results of the fingerprints first thing in the morning.

"No fingerprints save one set of fingerprints on the doorknob from the outside which belongs to a right-handed person. It seems Tenoh Haruka's ghost has wiped all the fingerprints off the door, the wardrobe, the cup, the chair, the table, the dressing table, the mirror, and the vase. There are a few fingerprints on the shelf and on the painting frame which don't belong to Tenoh-san. But you can't arrest anyone with that kind of evidence."

"Those are probably my fingerprints," Shinichi muses. But since he has taken care not to touch the doorknob and the hypochondriac artistic director wore gloves, he is curious about the identity of the person to whom the fingerprints on the doorknob belong.

"If the medical examiner can't find a trace of poison, it's unlikely that we'll ever learn about it," Hakuba remarks. "The case will be closed soon. I heard there is some tension between the commissario investigating the case and the vice-questore, who is having an affair with the daughter of the questore, who is a friend of the mayor, who is an acquaintance of Tenoh Haruka. Nothing beats the bush telegraph in Venice. But what does your beautiful friend say about Tenoh-san's death?"

"My beautiful friend?" Shinichi can barely suppress a sigh. Dealing with an overly curious and strongly motivated Hakuba Saguru is a challenge he would rather not face tonight.

"Miyano-san," Hakuba says with a smile in his voice. "Seiya Kou's secretary. She has an uncanny similarity with the little redhead who was living at your professor's place before the downfall of the Organization, doesn't she? I heard 'Ai-kun' has gone to New York with 'Conan-kun', and it surprised me somewhat that they both disappeared together after the Organization went down. Well, I wonder what Miyano Shiho knows about Pandora's Box and M Jean Black. She has been going out with Tenoh Haruka on a regular basis ever since she came to Venice with her 'employer' four years ago. And the situation was electric, according to what I learned from one of 'Seiya-sama's' avid fans who got the latest gossip from the blogs of the usher's at La Fenice. The plane was swarming with his fans, by the way."

"I don't think she has anything to do with this," Shinichi frowns at the phone. "His groupies exaggerate everything. I even saw a few of them camping in front of the opera house before I left."

"So it's not a crime of passion? I heard Miyano-san often left 'Seiya-sama' alone to run off with Tenoh Haruka, and neither Seiya Kou nor Kaioh Michiru seemed to like the situation, according to the rumours. The fans on his fan sites and forums claim that the police suspect that he is the culprit because 'Tenoh-sama' was trying to break them up. I admit I would never have expected a quiet girl like Ai-kun to cause such a commotion."

Despite knowing that Hakuba is only joking, Shinichi feels irritation rising in him at the flippant tone the snob employs to talk about Ai's role in the case.

"As far as I know, she is perfectly straight. Apart from that, Seiya and she aren't an item but only friends. It's only a dumb publicity stunt of his. After the things I've heard from his friends, it seems he is notorious for his childish pranks. It's a very well-acted charade, though. They almost fooled me."

"They aren't an item?" Hakuba asks with audible astonishment in his voice. "But who is the one keeping the screwdriver to her love bracelet if it's not him?"

"Love bracelet?" Shinichi, who has been pacing the room during the talk, sinks down onto the carpet. Although he has known it was a love bracelet all along, hearing it from Hakuba feels like receiving a kick in the face.

"On the few photos of hers which have leaked on the internet and the one photo an informant sent me, I can see her wearing a small love bracelet. Didn't she wear it tonight?"

"She did, but I don't know anything about couple jewellery," Shinichi is trying his best to keep his voice calm although he would love to smash the phone against the window next to him. What a corny idea for a silly little charade, he thinks as the image of a grinning Haibara Ai leaning against the red curtains of the stage during that autumn night flashes into his mind. It's just like her to make other people buy her pretty things as a payment for her cooperation. But who is he kidding? She obviously has a crush on the crazy singer if she really asked him for a love bracelet.

The two-part bracelet, which is called "love bracelet" because one can't take it off without a screw driver, is supposed to be a symbol for unwavering affection and commitment, Hakuba explains. The bracelet usually comes with a little screw driver which the wearer will either keep to herself or give her boyfriend as a token of her abiding love. Love bracelets are pretty popular in New York these days, just like Victorian style love necklaces. Shinichi probably knows the latter since they were very popular in Tokyo a few years ago. They come with cage-shaped lockets which look like normal pendants. If the necklace is of high quality, it is almost impossible to see that the pendant is actually a locket at first glance.

"Cage-shaped what?" Despite having taken enough APAH to last for the next ten hours, Shinichi can feel his migraine returning with a vengeance.

"Cage-shaped lockets," Hakuba continues in a perplexed voice. "There is a small cupid in the cage."

"Why a cupid?" Shinichi stammers. "Why not a bird or a butterfly or another winged animal?"

Well, one can argue that a cupid _is_ a winged creature, Hakuba chuckles. A bird or a butterfly in a cage would have symbolized confinement and could have served as a reminder of spiritual freedom. But the Victorian style necklace they are talking about absolutely has to contain a cupid because the name of the necklace is "Prisoner of Love." It is usually given to a woman as a love declaration.

x.

"To be honest, it doesn't look like a charade to me," Saguru tells Kudo who has been behaving very strangely tonight. But perhaps being with a gorgeous woman like Mori Ran in the same hotel suite is so distracting that even a man like Kudo is unable to think straight? Who knows what kind of romantic moment he has just interrupted, Saguru realizes. He should have known it when he noticed that Kudo seemed somewhat irritable. How could Saguru have been so self-absorbed and blind? It's best to leave the two of them alone with each other and end the phone call now.

"As I already said, they're very, very convincing," Kudo sighs. He hasn't been able to utter a normal sentence after Saguru told him about the Prisoner of Love. Clueless and perpetually engrossed in a case as Kudo is, he must have given his beloved Mori Ran a love necklace without knowing its implication.

"Very convincing indeed," Saguru says without conviction. "Well, I reckon you know Miyano-san better than I do. What about meeting up this evening at seven p.m. sharp to do some catching up and to exchange information?"

"Alright. Where do you want to meet?"

On the Piazza de San Marco in front of the Doge Palace, the fourth pillar when you come from the lagoon and count towards the Bacino di San Marco, Saguru spontaneously decides with a sidelong glance at the large photo on the screen of his laptop. It might not be the most innovative approach to meet an old ally. But in Saguru's opinion, it is better to choose a place where it's impossible to miss each other than to be creative and having to wait. "We can go somewhere to have dinner and compare notes over a drink or two."

"I just remembered that Chiba Mamoru, Tenoh's stand-in, is staying at the Gritty until Monday." Saguru can hear Kudo leafing through something which sounds like a thin notebook with leather covers. "Maybe you can catch him after breakfast and strike up a conversation with him."

"I will. See you tonight at seven p.m. then. Doge Palace, fourth pillar," Saguru repeats to Kudo in the hope that, no matter how preoccupied Kudo is, he will at least remember the time and the place of their meeting.

Acting? No way, Saguru thinks as he is studying the photo on which Miyano Shiho and Seiya Kou (or Kou Seiya, depending on which name he uses) are leaning against the fourth pillar of the Doge Palace, locking lips and holding each other in an unmistakably romantic embrace. Although they are half-hidden in the shadow of the pillar and both of them are wearing high-collar coats and hats, their faces are perfectly visible to Saguru when he zooms in. If this is really only a publicity stunt as Kudo has suggested, Miyano-san seems to go out of her way to act her part convincingly enough to pass as Seiya-sama's girlfriend. But since this doesn't seem to have anything to do with the case, Saguru decides to keep his thoughts to himself and to turn his attention to his next task: trying to get five hours of good sleep in this rickety old bed before going to the Gritty and investigating Chiba Mamoru.

x.

**A.N.:** Sorry for the long break. My studies were killing me. But now that I'm holidaying, I'll be trying to update regularly again.

Aya: Thanks a lot for the long review. :D It's really hard to stay motivated while writing long multi-chapters, and I'm always thankful for reviewers who keep motivating me by telling their thoughts about the story. :) (Regarding Haruka, parts of her relationship to Shiho have been revealed in "Ghost at Twilight" Chapter 30. But of course I'm going to mention it in this fic as well. :) )

Saeg: Thanks a lot for your nice review. I'm sorry he has not visited them yet. The plots in my fics move extremely slowly. *sweatdrops XD


	20. Part Two: Accustomed to long-haul

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**20. Accustomed to long-haul flights...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Accustomed to long-haul flights since his early childhood, Saguru seldom if ever suffers from jet lag. But now that he is lying on this exceptionally uncomfortable and hard mattress of this exceptionally awful creaky bed, thinking of Watson who must be wide awake at this time, he discovers after half an hour, two minutes and 23:14 seconds of tossing and turning that he can't bring himself to get the obligatory five-hour rest despite his undeniable exhaustion.

The whole investigation would be a breeze if Watson were a young woman instead of an old falcon, Saguru thinks, feeling his resentment flaring up at the recollection of the amused and exasperated glances his colleagues had given him when they learned that he was taking a holiday to follow the culprit to Venice. No one but his baaya, Kuroba and Aoko-kun seemed to be able to comprehend why Saguru actually goes to such lengths to find the bastard who has shot Watson. Getting the manifest of the flight was a pain because he couldn't do it in the usual straightforward way but had to beg and to lie and to wait and to (mis-)use his connections to get the information he would have received with a phone call if Watson were a human being and not "just a pet." _Wouldn't it be much easier to buy a new falcon instead, _a few colleagues have even dared to suggest. _What are you going to do to your Mr. Akira Tenoh after you've found him, anyway? He's probably shot your pet bird by accident, and it's not like you really need compensation since you're swimming in money._

Saguru can clearly imagine all the hackneyed excuses which "Tenoh Akira" could have got away with if he had been arrested: I was practising on the field, aimed at a small branch of the tree and shot the bird by accident... I didn't know that it was someone's pet and that it was still alive... Since I was in a hurry to catch the last train back to the city, I didn't even bother to look at the carcass... I'm extremely sorry for your loss and am going to compensate you for your medical expenses and the inconvenience I caused... In the eyes of the law, what "Mr. Tenoh" did was only a minor offence, and Saguru was actually making a fool of himself by taking "the tragic accident" so personally.

Much to his aggravation, Saguru couldn't even find the bullet to determine the caliber because the scoundrel has removed it from the trunk of the hawthorn where it was stuck after it had grazed Watson's left wing. While Watson was lying on the grass, the cold-blooded monster must have removed the bullet and carved out parts of the trunk, put everything into a plastic bag he had prepared in advance, and gone off with a smirk and the knowledge that Mr. Saguru Hakuba, the owner of the falcon he had intentionally shot, would accept the challenge and follow him.

Despite knowing that it could be a trap and that it might be safer to conduct the investigation from London instead of tailing the villain, this challenge is a provocation Saguru cannot resist. During the twenty-four years, two months, five days, thirty-two minutes (and counting) of his life, Saguru has been attracted to various women whose beauty and spunky nature he admired. Nevertheless, Saguru can say without a shadow of a doubt that he has never felt anything for any of them which comes close to the unconditional love he only feels for Watson.

There are many sorts of loves with varying degrees of trust, commitment, care, attachment, fascination, attraction and lust. But is there any love which is purer than the love of an owner for a pet like a falcon? Saguru's love for Watson is — from a moral point of view — better than Kuroba's love for Aoko-kun, Kudo's love for Mori-san, or Miyano-san's love for 'Seiya-sama' simply because Saguru's love for Watson is essentially selfless. A falcon, unlike a dog or a cat, is an animal you can't even cuddle with. You can only take care of it, teach it a few skills and enjoy its magnificence. It is love in its purest essence, and Saguru wonders whether he will ever meet a woman who — on a purely platonic level — can trigger in him the deep sense of belonging he only feels for Watson.

As fate had it, the short story Saguru read on the plane (after the talkative Seiya-fan next to him had finally fallen asleep and Saguru could turn his attention to his Decameron again) was the story of Federigo degli Alberighi, the lovesick fool who served his unrequited love his beloved falcon as a meal (after he had squandered his wealth on courting her so that his magnificent falcon and his small estate was all he had left). And while Hakuba had studied countless mutilated corpses and attended innumerable funerals of more or less close relatives without shedding a single tear, the short story about the poor falcon who was betrayed by its foolish owner made him cry so hard that he almost woke up his sleeping neighbour.

Clicking the photo of Miyano Shiho and Seiya Kou away with a raised eyebrow (if Kudo claims they are acting, they must be acting because Kudo not only knows Ai-kun better than Saguru does but is also a great detective who — without substantial proof for his theory — would never jump to the conclusion that their relationship is only a publicity stunt), Saguru proceeds to check his mails and his messages in the hope that his informants have sent him some information which could throw a new light on the mystery of Tenoh Akira's sudden resurrection from the grave and his sister's sudden death at La Fenice.

Knowing Kudo, the mystery will be solved in no time, and Saguru is glad that they are working together again after three years, eleven months, one day and thirty-two minutes since Pandora's Box. Despite the disastrous outcome (the unexpected storm prevented Kudo from returning to the ship in time so that Hattori-kun, who had been staying on the ship to back up the files, drowned in an attempt to leave the ship before the bombs exploded), Saguru values the experiences he gained and the unlikely friendship he has formed with Kuroba and Kudo. Impersonating Kudo and Hattori-kun with the help of Kudo's mother, Kuroba and Saguru distracted the Organization's spies so that Kudo and Hattori-kun could open Pandora's Box, the secret storage of the Organization's files on the seven crows and the history of the Organization. Helping Kudo bring down the Organization was for both Saguru and Kuroba an exciting challenge. As a matter of course, Saguru felt deep sorrow at Hattori-kun's death just as anyone else who knew Hattori-kun did. But the Detective of the West, impetuous and hot-headed as he was, always struck Saguru as someone who would die a heroic death because people like him usually don't live long.

For Saguru, Pandora's Box is a pleasant memory of a time of rapid mental and emotional growth. And this thought finally turns on the light in Saguru's head and makes him realize that Pandora's Box must be a traumatic memory associated with failure and death for Kudo.

With a twinge of conscience, Saguru becomes conscious of the fact that he was extremely impolite and inconsiderate, waking Kudo up in the middle of the night and cheerfully poking into Kudo's old wound just because he wanted information on M Jean Black and also felt the wish to talk to a person as level-headed as Kudo. Patient, well-mannered, incorruptible, hard-working and oddly calming in his bluntness and his brutal honesty, Kudo is the fellow detective Saguru likes most, the one baaya would describe as a diamond in a perfect cut among all the less valuable gemstones, fakes and pebbles that Saguru meets every day. Hopefully Kudo's understandable irritation at Saguru's conduct is nothing a good dinner and a few drinks can't dispel. And if they are lucky, they both will have solved their cases by Sunday night at the latest so that they can celebrate their victories with the famous Venetian _spritz_ Saguru has often heard about but has never tasted.

Observant as he is, Kudo naturally didn't need to ask Saguru why the forensics expert claimed that the fingerprints on the doorknob of Tenoh Haruka's dressing room belonged to a right-handed person, Saguru recalls while rereading his old mails and jotting down short summaries of their contents and the exact time of their arrival into his hardbound Christian Lacroix (the Voyage edition this time). Left-handed people usually don't use their right hand to open a door which swings open to the left. On the other hand, even right-handed people seldom use their right hand for such a door. And it is likely that whoever placed the fingerprints of their right hand on that doorknob — if they really placed their fingers on that doorknob by accident after the culprit has removed all the fingerprints — was carrying something in their left hand or didn't use their left hand for other reasons. Some people use their body in a random way which is unexplainable to a rational mind. In contrast to Adriano, the Gintama-loving forensics man, Saguru is positive that the owner of the fingerprints might as well be a left-handed person.

At this point of the investigation, the fingerprints are still irrelevant. The real mystery lies in the cause of Tenoh Haruka's death, a question to which probably only the culprit(s) and Miyano Shiho (who must be the scientist who had shrunk Kudo and turned him back to his normal state again) know the answer.

A swoosh and a clink announce the arrival of a new mail with the subject "Sorry for the misinformation" from Natalie, the informant who has told Saguru about the fingerprints.

"Haruka Tenoh's fingerprints were all over the room," Natalie corrects herself. The forensics expert and she had misunderstood each other because the forensics man actually meant that there were only Tenoh's fingerprints with "no fingerprints" (meaning that there were no fingerprints of another person on the door, the wardrobe, the cup, the chair, the table, the dressing table, the mirror, and the vase) while Natalie took his statement literally and thought that there hadn't been any fingerprints at all. According to Natalie (who is apt to either overstate or understate everything to tweak the situation to her advantage), these "little misunderstandings" happen quite often during their chats. As the forensics expert is not only too lazy to type full sentences but is also too lazy to type the full names (preferring to use initials instead), Natalie almost attributed all of his wild stories about Kino Makoto (who owns a beautiful little flower shop he frequents and sometimes chats with him when they stumble across each other in Harry's Bar) to Tenoh Haruka's live-in girlfriend Kaioh Michiru: "I even believed for half an hour that Kaioh, the perfect lady, was really the one who regularly won all the bets against the heaviest drinkers in Venice..."

Taken aback, Saguru sits up in his bed with a loud creak. He should have guessed that there must have been fingerprints in Tenoh Haruka's dressing room because the forensics people would have told the commissario leading the investigation about the lack of fingerprints immediately (while they were still on the crime scene) if there hadn't been any on the cup, on the chair and on the table. This is a clue he would never have missed in another situation if his emotions hadn't been running high, Saguru realizes in dismay. Distracted by his pretty girlfriend, Kudo himself doesn't seem to be in great form tonight either because, thinking back to Kudo's lack of reaction to Saguru's words when Saguru mentioned the fingerprints, Saguru can't help but get the impression that Kudo has missed the clue as well.

x.

**AN: **A short chapter dedicated to the Saguru-Watson pairing with a few mystery-related hints. I hope you enjoyed it nevertheless. The next chapters will be long again.

Raksha: Thanks a lot for the long review. :D Of course I am going to drag it out a bit since it wouldn't make sense for Shinichi to recognize his feelings during such a short time (they haven't even talked to each other in private yet). And yes, while I love them as a pairing, I also feel this compelling need to let them suffer for the sake of the plot. :D (There is something beautiful about unrequited love as long as you aren't the one suffering from it, and I absolutely adore jealous Shinichi because he seldom lets his guard down under different circumstances.)

"Ghost at Twilight" happens in the same universe with only a few tiny changes (for example Ai took the antidote before she went to Pandora's Box, which drastically affected her relationship to Shinichi). The characters are the same in different circumstances. The narration and style are different, though.


	21. Part Two: Much to her relief, Shiho

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**21. Much to her relief, Shiho deduces...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Much to her relief, Shiho deduces from Seiya's surreptitious kiss on her thumb that he has finally slipped out of his latest role — a flawless rendition of "Tenoh Haruka in a philosophical, sanctimonious mood" — and returned to normalcy. But even though his rueful smile and the way he rubs her cold hands disarm her in an instant, her vengeful side is not inclined to admit defeat so soon.

"Welcome back, 'Signor Seiya Kou'," she wryly notes. "You've had a great time making fun of me, I suppose... Hopefully you're going to like the aftermath as well."

It wasn't a prank this time, he hurriedly assures her in a desperate attempt to escape the impending punishment. Wasn't she the one who told him to keep up the pretense no matter what? He also tried to be perfectly amiable towards Kudo, to show himself from his best side while pretending to be in an unrequited love. But then the whole charade escalated because he was bored out of his mind by his bland part of the saintly idol sharing his sanctuary with his friend. To make matters worse, commissario Carrara's facial expressions after she drew the napkin out of his pocket amused him so much that he "sort of" got carried away...

To the naked eye — and even under her skeptical, scrutinizing gaze — he looks perfectly convincing and honest. But knowing Seiya's cavalier attitude to the truth, Shiho is certain that his justifications, translated into Kudo's _The One Truth_, should be put this way:

Although he didn't really intend to play a prank on her, the urge to play a prank on someone (anyone would have answered his needs) suddenly overcame him when he stepped out of the dressing room and assumed his role in a genuine effort to keep up their (usually half-hearted) charade. Knowing that she wanted him to make a positive impression on Kudo, he tried to keep his continual switching subtle in the hope that Kudo would be bewildered enough to be intrigued but not disturbed enough to become suspicious of him. Despite himself, however, things got out of hand when she took his napkin: The expression on her face when she realized she had blindly walked into Kudo's obvious trap, added to commissario Carrara's continual misreading of the situation, was so hysterical that it inspired him to take it up a notch and play a prank on all of them.

"You've seldom been _that _insufferable, not even when you impersonated Tenoh-san and fueled the rumours about her and me by kissing me in public!" she snaps, frowning at the memory. She had only told him to keep up the pretense so that the police wouldn't immediately jump to conclusions and label him the culprit. If she had known that he'd leap at the chance to go through his whole 'repertoire' and present himself as a lunatic of Stinger's caliber to Kudo, she would never have suggested it to him.

"You knew exactly that it was pointless to continue even before I took your napkin." Shiho colours with anger as she recalls commissario Carrara's calculated insult. "Something was definitely wrong with Kudo as well. I'd never have thought that he would resent me so much that he would side with that misogynist of a commissario against me!"

Kudo didn't side with anyone, Seiya asserts, turning his head further to peer at the small retreating figures of Kudo and the commissario in the distance. "I fear his interest in us is purely personal."

"I don't think so." She has automatically followed his gaze and turned round to Kudo, who is now a faraway ghostly grey shadow beautifully illuminated by a street lamp. "Kudo has never been very much interested in other people's private lives. He only uses his skills to solve mysteries and to prevent crime."

"You told me Kudo was lacking in the emotional department," says Seiya thoughtfully with a last backward glance before he turns his attention to her again and leans into the seat with a sigh. "I really wanted to believe you instead of Haruka-san." But now that he has seen Kudo and her together and noticed how Kudo reacted to his remark he made about the opera when he was still stuck in Tenoh-san's mind, he wonders whether she is the slow one...

"Until then, I thought he was only overprotective," he continues uneasily. "If I had known it, I'd never have said such a thing. We should tell him the truth when he visits us no matter whether Taiki can delete the mails from Shizuka-san's account or not. That way, no one will get hurt."

She raises her brow at him, delighted by his delusion, a proof that she must be so irresistible in his eyes that he projects his feelings for her onto any other man who crosses her path. Simultaneously, she acknowledges in exasperation that his misplaced sympathy for the person he wrongly suspects to be his rival must stem from the fact that he himself had been in an unrequited love for years before he met her.

"Are you jealous because he hugged me goodbye?" she mocks, satisfied that he has finally received his just punishment. Confiding in each other to the point of telling each other all about previous love interests has proven to do more harm than good, for she, too, always feels this irrational nagging ache whenever she hears him utter the little nickname he still uses for Chiba Usagi whereas he has never employed any term of endearment for her. It is only fair that he should suffer now that Kudo has come to Venice. By sending off the wrong signals, Kudo has unwittingly turned into the very first man who has ever troubled her exasperatingly non-jealous boyfriend. Admittedly, Shiho herself was staggered by Kudo's impulsive and somewhat romantic gesture at first before it hit her that, a) Kudo must be extremely relieved that she is still alive and b) he has only done it as an act for the commissario in retaliation against her intolerable sort-of-husband, who was having fun at their expense during the interrogation.

"Not in the least," Seiya indignantly denies, since back then he still thought Kudo only did it to provoke him. "Although I noticed you enjoyed it way too much. I only hope you don't consider dumping me for someone whose cooking — according to your own words — is even worse than mine."

"May I ask what you two are purring in the backseat?" Hino-san's irritated voice interrupts them. With a twinge of guilt, Shiho realizes that they have completely forgotten about Hino-san, who must feel left out while they are immersed in their little lover's quarrel.

"We're only comparing Kudo's cooking skills to mine," Seiya shamelessly bends the truth, "and we can't decide who is worse because I char the steaks while he burns them to a cinder outside but leaves the inside bloody."

"What has he been up to again?" Skeptical about the truthfulness of Seiya's report, Hino-san shoots Shiho a curious glance through the rearview mirror.

"Seiya got the brilliant idea to parody all of his acquaintances in one single performance, messing up the investigation and making a fool of me." In a petty attempt to get even with her unmanageable life partner of four turbulent years, Shiho mercilessly adds: "He has actually dared to imitate you as well."

Hino-san, however, obviously feels more inclined to side with Seiya than with Shiho, judging from her slightly breathless but genuine laugh.

"I'd have loved to see it," she beams at him through the mirror. "Did they like it?"

"Unfortunately no," Seiya pauses to flash Shiho a victorious smirk before he tells Hino-san in a fit of Kudo-like inappropriate frankness: "Although that only means my imitation of your typical scowl was spot-on."

At the sight of Hino-san's famous eye-brow-twitch, he realizes his blunder and quickly changes the topic. "Sorry for the nonsense about the 'opera' earlier." He gives her a propitiatory pat on her woolly hat. Of course it is the form and not the character which usually determines how a musical piece is categorized. Hino-san is actually right and Tenoh-san's _An Opera for One Singer and Piano_ — despite its operatic character — is officially not an opera but a song cycle.

A name doesn't say much about about the character of the piece itself. It's just the same with people: The titles and names by which they're addressed seldom say anything about their true nature, Hino-san, who has a philosophical streak, muses. On the other hand, it is impossible to categorize people according to character because the personality of a person is much too complex to be reduced to a single phrase.

"I did notice it wasn't like you at all to care so much about a musical term. But who were you parodying at that time?"

"Haruka-san. Her commanding presence is extremely effective," Seiya replies while Shiho wonders whether Hino-san, too, can detect the subtle irony in his voice. "You should have seen the portiere's face when I used her authoritative gaze on him. I'm going to imitate her again the next time my fans try to rob me of my luggage."

They have finally arrived at Hino-san's and Aino-san's place. But Hino-san, who has just brought the boat to a halt, hesitates as if she doesn't feel inclined to go home.

"I miss her dreadfully." She suddenly groans, the corners of her mouth slightly quivering. "And that even though Mamoru-san has told me all about her lies... I've grown accustomed to seeing her walk around, giving everyone advice and playing little snippets of melodies on the piano."

"That's only natural," Shiho tries to soothe her, distraught because the sight of a crying Hino Rei would be too disturbing for her to handle tonight. Vaguely, she wonders whether Hino-san, who is very perceptive about people, knows about Tenoh-san's latest scheme and feels sorrow for her nonetheless or whether she has been deceived like most of Tenoh-san's other friends. "She will be missed by everyone."

The hackneyed statement — uttered in a moment of panic — has been exclaimed a bit too enthusiastically, and Shiho shudders at the audible hypocrisy in her voice. Perhaps she, too, will miss Tenoh-san in the distant future if she can't help it. However, she is certain that she does not miss her now.

"Not by me," Seiya's voice — calm but tinged with suppressed anger — resonates through the eerie stillness of the night, steadying her tattered nerves with its clarity. "I'm not going to miss her a bit. Neither her superior air nor her total disregard for other people's feelings nor her well-meant 'help' which usually came when one absolutely didn't need it."

"How, do you think, will Michiru-san cope with this?" asks Hino-san, who seems to have regained her composure and is now rubbing her arms. She is visibly more affected by the damp November air than Seiya and Shiho despite her shawl and her woolly hat. But notwithstanding the cold, she is trying to linger on.

"I don't know. But since she is tough enough to have endured living with Haruka-san for so many years, she will be tough enough to live without her as well."

For a moment, all of them fall silent, and Shiho hopes that Hino-san is not going to use the word "corpse" as a cue to address the unpleasant topic they have implicitly agreed not to touch upon.

"Did she really choose the title of the 'opera' to make fun of you two?" Hino-san inquires instead. She must be procrastinating seeing Aino-san who is going to ask questions about what happened tonight.

"She had the audacity to suggest that our cohabiting is only a little fling without strings attached as long as we're still keeping it secret and don't sign any legal papers," Seiya recalls. "It's ironic that she out of all people would put so much emphasis on marriage as an institution."

"I think she only envied you," Hino-san points out. "You two can get married in contrast to Michiru-san and her. Not getting something one wants usually makes it all the more desirable."

"Maybe... It wouldn't have disturbed me at all if she had only taunted us. But she also sent Shizuka-san a mail telling her that I've been living with Shiho instead of meeting her secretly in some run-down pension until Yaten and Taiki's comeback as Shizuka-san suggested." He gives a short, incredulous laugh. "After all these years and only one month before their comeback, she suddenly decided to rat on me." Throwing a glance at the screen of his mobile phone, he shows Shiho the new message from Taiki-san with a worried look. "It's game over, so it seems. She didn't only send the mail to Shizuka-san but also the editors of thirty-nine different newspapers. It's just like her to do everything so thoroughly."

"It doesn't matter," Shiho shrugs, squeezing his hand she is still holding. In a way, she feels relieved that Seiya and she no longer need to hide although she still breaks out in a cold sweat when she imagines the imminent media attention and the obligatory death threats. Pandora's Box is deactivated, as she only found out tonight, and her biggest problem now will be how to evade Kudo when he grills her about the happenings of four years ago because she can't tell him the truth under these circumstances.

No sooner did her mind wind back to the Detective of the West than her headaches — dulled but not completely erased by two capsules of APAH — threaten to worsen. He seems to take part in her life as a haunting presence that would always return to her when she believes she has finally learned to forget. As always, Shiho pushes the unwanted memory of his reproachful gaze away by trying to convince herself once again that there had been nothing she could have done to prevent his death — consoling herself with the thought that, due to a stroke of luck, Kudo didn't manage to come back in time so that she doesn't have to mourn for him as well.

Noticing her anxiety, Seiya pulls her closer to him and strokes her hair in mesmerizingly slow movements. Although she can never guess how he does it, he knows instinctively when she wants to be touched and never lets social conventions or inconvenient timing prevent him from doing it, a rare gift which makes up for the silly pranks he regularly plays on her.

"When everything is in ruins, things can only get better," Hino-san turns to them with a genial smile. "If you'd told me the 'opera' was meant to be insulting, I'd never have sung it." But now that she has spoiled both her debut and her voice for nothing, she has got rid of her stage fright completely, which can be considered a very promising start for a career.

She hasn't ruined anything, Seiya reassures her. The "opera" was, from a musical point of view, only a demanding singing exercise. "But because it's Haruka-san's work, most critics will write that it 'deserves the highest commendation.'" Neither Chiba-san nor Hino-san are likely to get scathing critiques, especially not because the Italian critics will be in an exceptionally generous mood after the untimely demise of the composer.

"In any case, you need to rest before the musical if you want your Christine to be convincing," he says as Hino-san doesn't show any inclination to leave. "Good night."

Oddly enough, Hino-san only regards him silently with a steady inquiring gaze.

"May I borrow him for a few minutes?" she asks at last, without taking her eyes from his face to look at Shiho. Noticing their undisguised lack of enthusiasm, she sighs and rolls her eyes. "Come on, only five minutes. I'm going to return him in one piece, I swear."

"Why do you ask me?" Shiho frees herself from his comfortable arm and leans back to make space for him to climb out of the boat. "It's not like he is my puppy."

"But he might as well be," Hino sighs again as she scrambles out of the boat and resolutely pulls at Seiya's coat while he reluctantly follows her to the door.

Climbing on the passenger seat, Shiho shakes off her shoes and tucks up her sore feet beneath her knees before she watches the two of them talk in hushed voices with a sense of déjà-vu. Why is it so difficult to take notice of someone we don't love, she wonders, thinking back to the moment she told Seiya that Hino-san might harbour serious feelings for him and he only brushed it off as a celebrity crush and a misunderstanding.

Kudo, too, never noticed, she thinks to herself, wondering how the past years have been for him and his Ran-nee-chan. Tenoh-san, self-righteous and never considerate enough to stay out of other people's private lives, once openly accused Shiho of fickleness when she discovered that her interest in Seiya wasn't only limited to his acting and his voice. But in Shiho's opinion, one can't compare two loves which are so different from each other that there is no competition between them at all.

Kudo is, even after these four years, still her idea of perfection, the scale on which she measures all the people she meets. Nevertheless, she had long reconciled herself to the thought that he was out of her reach even before they entered that cursed cabin. And she can't say whether it was the exceptional circumstances under which they met or the extreme stress which asked for relief... But when Seiya unceremoniously (and in the literal sense) crashed into her life, scooped her up from her wooden box and gingerly placed her into Tenoh-san's motorboat while gleefully screaming against the storm into her ear that the weather wasn't "nice enough for a swim," it was what she would later describe as instant recognition of kindred spirits or love at first sight.

"Kindred spirits" (just as "love at first sight") must be an exaggeration concocted by an infatuated mind, considering how she treated him in the beginning and how difficult it still is for her to distinguish between when he is only acting and when he tells the truth. In contrast to Kudo, whom she could always read like an open book (the blunt, direct way in which he faced the world was undoubtedly part of the attraction!), Seiya is still a complete mystery to her because he always comes up with absurd ideas her rational mind would reject. But maybe this character trait of his — Shiho watches in amusement how he attentively listens to Hino-san while his shoe traces imaginary outlines of the Phantom's mask on the pavement — is part of the attraction as well.

She was very open about the two of them in her last mail (at least as open as she can ever allow herself to be), admitting to the Professor and Kudo that she had "met someone" she is now living with:_ "As you must have deduced from my gushing praise of the picturesque bridges and gondolas here in Venice, not even I can withstand these bothersome feelings forever. _[Et cetera, et cetera...] _In contrast to a certain detective, he is an absolute airhead whenever his mind is in default mode although he surprises me at times when he suddenly activates his few living braincells._ [Et cetera, et cetera.] _All in all, I think Ayumi-chan will find him irresistible. I'm going to introduce him to you this Christmas. Would you like to visit us in Venice or would you prefer us to visit you in Beika?_"

The mail finished with further elaborations on why not only Ayumi-chan would like her lovely boyfriend. And Shiho is selfishly glad that this particular mail never reached its recipients because the Professor, Kudo, and even the Detective Boys would have teased her for the rest of her life and never looked upon her as their aloof, self-possessed and slightly intimidating Haibara Ai again.

_Don't write to me from your mail accounts, _she had implored the Professor in her first two letters._ Please only use the ones I've created for Kudo and you and don't ever call me on the phone. This letter and the next one _— the one containing the passwords — _will be delivered by an old acquaintance at Infinity I can trust. But please destroy them after reading and don't try to contact her afterwards because you would put all of us in danger... _

In a rush of anger, Shiho can see herself in the backstage café again, kicking the bag on the floor aside, shutting the door with a trembling hand, whipping around to face her nonchalantly smiling, tea-sipping opponent with barely controlled cold fury.

_It was you all along, wasn't it? I should have known that something was amiss when neither of them insisted on visiting me during all these years._ Naturally, she has noticed that something was different about Kudo's writing style but attributed it to his girlfriend's influence. Additionally, the Professor's mails were excellent imitations so that she was completely taken in.

_Since you saved me, I thought you were someone I could trust. How dare you deceive me like that, you depraved little traitor?_

_Ah, are we talking about "trust" now, about being a "depraved little traitor?" _Her cool teal eyes roamed Shiho's face in sardonic amusement while her long fingers playfully turned the small red card to and fro. _You know, it's brilliantly funny to hear those words from your mouth. Living with someone in a never-ending engagement and lying to him for almost four years... What, do you think, will he do when I tell him about your little secret? My bet is he will abandon you at once. I also wonder what Kudo will think when he learns about it. Will he be disgusted or only disappointed? Who of them will be able to forgive you for the things you did? Let's find out whether there is a grain of truth in the myth that love really conquers all._

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**AN: **Thanks to everyone who is still reading and those who have reviewed. :)

Raksha: Shinichi is naturally very jealous even in canon (although I don't plan to make him dumb but only a bit distracted.) As for rubbing the picture in his face... No, I can't do that to him. XD I suppose I like him too much to be that sadistic (which is odd, I know, because I can let him suffer through so many other things.)

Um, but I'd rather not review my own fics even when the reviews would attract more readers... Most readers don't have enough time and interest to get through such a long fic, anyway. The only thing I do is occasionally begging for reviews from those who do read the fic when I feel really desperate. (If you feel awkward about me replying to anonymous reviews at the end of a chapter, you only need to tell me in your review. :) And if you do want to chat but feel weird about doing it on this site, please feel free to leave me a comment on my LiveJournal instead. :) I usually reply to reviews because I think reviewers like receiving replies and because I'm talkative although I'm really horrible at communication.)


	22. Part Two: The depressing truth about

**Disclaimer:**

"Meitantei Konan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. For more information please read the Disclaimer in Chapter 1 or the Author's Notes in Chapter 99. XD

x.

_FS_

x.

x. **ENCOUNTER in VENICE** x.

(new version)

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

**22. The depressing truth about...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

The depressing truth about friendship is that you can be friends with someone for over nine years and still won't be able to read his mind as well as his lover of four years can, Rei reluctantly acknowledges as she recalls Seiya-kun's little "prank." As a matter of course, Rei did notice that Seiya-kun seemed oddly out of character and that Shiho-san looked as if she would have wrung his gorgeous neck with relish if he hadn't managed to appease her with his contrite smile and his kiss. Nevertheless, Rei would have dismissed it as one of his more quirky moments and left it at that if Shiho-san hadn't told her what was going on.

To be fair, Shiho-san had much more time to study his small "performance." And Rei firmly believes that Shiho-san would have lost to Seiya-kun as well if he had really wanted to deceive her. Akane-sensei, whose _Detective Boy Holmes_ won several Japanese Drama Academy Awards, once claimed that Seiya-kun had a natural aptitude for hypnotizing himself. And despite the award Seiya-kun got for Best Supporting Actor (Taiki-san got the award for Best Main Actor and was celebrated as the ideal Young Sherlock Holmes), Akane-sensei swore that she would never even contemplate casting Seiya-kun in a villainous role again.

As an aspiring singer and actress suffering from a predictable weakness for glamour despite her claim to ignore the shallow surface, Rei had been gorging herself on information about Seiya-kun ever since his debut and hung on his every word like the rest of her small group of friends at Juuban highschool, who were all fascinated by his voice and his air of unrestrained freedom. But it wasn't until she watched him perform on stage with the fresh wound he had received while protecting Usagi, who had been targeted by one of the Organization's snipers, his eyes bright with fever which not only his fans but also his uninformed agent attributed to his passion for the song, that Rei knew he could fool his friends as easily as his audience and that Haruka-san was right when she claimed that Usagi's new admirer and friend was dangerous.

With time, Rei's wariness gave way to admiration and even Haruka-san's mistrust of Seiya-kun, which bordered on paranoia, yielded to respect. For some obscure reason, however, the beginning friendship between Haruka-san and Seiya-kun abruptly cooled when the perverted sleuth brought down the Organization. The renowned detective Haruka-san admired (a fact which proves that traitors of a feather flock together) launched a bungled cloak-and-dagger operation which culminated in him leaving his two friends with the files on Pandora's Box. In a poor attempt to phone the FBI for assistance and to meet up with his long-distance girlfriend for what Mina-chan suspects to be a quickie on the shore in one fell swoop, the master sleuth let the rendezvous distract him so much that he completely forgot the time despite knowing that his best friends were stuck in the middle of the sea with enough explosives to blow up the whole isle.

Thus Seiya Kou (who has always loved to court death and was surfing during a weather which would have granted him eternal sleep if he hadn't been born under a lucky star) fell in love with Miyano Shiho after a foolish rescue mission which secured him the role of her gallant hero and enabled him to sweep Sleeping Beauty off her feet during the few days she spent at Haruka-san's seaside house recovering from her wound — a small souvenir of her encounter with Vodka, which, in retrospect, equalled the prick of a rose or a spindle...

Meanwhile, Rei was studying music and acting in blissful ignorance, assured that Seiya-kun was so heartbroken about Usagi's marriage and so weary of the adoring females tailing him wherever he went that he would naturally stay single for years to come. But even if it hadn't been for Seiya-kun, Rei would have despised the sleazy detective whom she, until a few hours ago, had never met, as he callously betrayed his friends and lacked the backbone to drive out into the storm to search for them. Having been betrayed all her life — first by her politician-father who dumped her at her grandfather's shrine after her mother's death and then by "friends" from her private school who repeatedly stabbed her in the back out of envy — the only thing Rei can never forgive is betrayal.

Be that as it may... Although she didn't notice that Seiya-kun parodied Haruka-san, Rei is smart enough to add two and two together after all the things she has seen and guess the reason why he was in such an impish mood. She could blurt out her discovery to him now but prefers to delay the confrontation until later because he is likely to run off afterwards. And there are still other questions Rei would like to ask because she has been holding them back for too long.

"How long," she indicates Shiho-san, who has just made herself comfortable on the passenger seat of the boat, "has this secret love affair of yours been going on?"

There it is, the first question whose answer she already knows because she has done her homework. Hearing it from his mouth, she predicts, will give her a sense of closure. In order to pretend her interest in them is superficial and impersonal at best, Rei makes a determined but unsuccessful effort to sound cheery and frivolous.

Four years by next month, he readily admits. And she wonders whether she should feel disappointed or relieved now that he has dropped the charade completely. But he wouldn't call it an 'affair' since the word conveys a distorted impression of their relationship. After all, it's not like either of them were married to another person.

There is no stigma attached to cohabiting, at least not in this country in our time, Rei points out. "It would have been easier for you two if you hadn't tried to hide it. Passing her off as your secretary makes people think it's some sort of illicit affair you both are ashamed of. Mina-chan has even suggested that your girlfriend must be married to another man and that you've eloped with her because she couldn't get divorced for some reason."

He didn't intentionally pass her off as his secretary at first, Seiya-kun has the decency to blush. And from the few words in which he recounts the circumstances, Rei can imagine the situation vividly. Mina-chan and Mako-chan, having learned from Michiru-san that Seiya-kun had bought her apartment, dropped in on him without prior notice on a Sunday morning to celebrate his arrival in Venice. Shiho-san was still fast asleep when Seiya-kun, distracted by the new song he was working on, opened the door for them without considering the consequences. And when his guests asked him the redundant questions who the sleepy strawberry-blonde who had just emerged from his bedroom was and what she was doing in his apartment, he had only grinned and (much to Shiho-san's dismay) declared that her name was Miyano Shiho and that she was taking care of his paperwork for him before he casually went about the business of making coffee.

The joke took on a life of its own during a visit at La Fenice when Mina-chan introduced Shiho-san as Seiya-kun's secretary to Gentile, who has been stubbornly defending her against the rumour that she was Seiya-kun's girlfriend ever since. Half-shocked and half-amused at the realization that most people had begun to regard Shiho-san as Seiya-kun's secretary-friend he was sharing his apartment with, Shiho-san and Seiya-kun decided to play along...

"Until tonight, it was only a running joke for us," he gives Rei an apologetic smile, drawing invisible doodles on the pavement with the tip of his left shoe as he sometimes does when he has to stand motionless for too long. In reality, they didn't put much effort into the act since they were sure all his closest friends and even casual acquaintances (in short, everyone who knows him personally) have seen through it. Alluding to Rei's remark tonight when he threw her the keys, he mischievously adds: "Although I denied it because you always asked me when other people could overhear us, you've guessed it as well."

It can't be overlooked since you'll always kiss her in the open whenever you believe that nobody will notice, Rei thinks but bites back the retort because it would carry an unhappy nuance of accusation she doesn't want it to have.

"I wasn't sure since you told me you'd marry her immediately but she wouldn't accept you," she says instead. Flashing him a crooked grin, she jokes: "I hoped it was unrequited since I'd already mapped out my future with you. It would have boosted my career if we had hooked up after the musical, or so I thought. It would have been the picture-perfect romance if you had played along."

"No, it wouldn't. My reputation wouldn't have done your career any good." He brushes off (or acknowledges?) her confession in disguise with a fleeting smile before he lets his gaze drift to Shiho-san again. "But it's true that she told me she wouldn't ever marry me."

Why not? Aren't they planning to stay together in the future, Rei inquires. From what he said about Haruka-san's letter to his agent, she inferred Shiho-san and he were only hiding their relationship from the public until Yaten-kun and Taiki-san's comeback this Christmas before dropping the bomb on the fans.

"I could have sworn you two would run off to get married before New Year at the latest."

"Of course we're going to make it public some time after their comeback. But since Shiho has something against marriage in general and I won't pester her for it, we won't ever marry."

"Just cut it out and tell me the truth!" Rei snarls, knowing that he won't mind her bluntness, especially not when she is so exhausted and sleep-deprived like she is now. "Are you two in danger? Is that the real reason why she is so low key?"

"It depends on how you define 'danger,'" he muses, imperturbable in his Peter-Pan-like cheeriness. "And it doesn't matter since she won't marry me whether we're in danger or not."

"'Danger' as 'being stalked and threatened and possibly sniped by someone in the middle of the night.'"

"Only in the first year after the explosion, but that was to be expected. As long as no paranoiac psycho decides to hunt down all the boat owners in the vicinity of the ship when it exploded, we should be fairly safe from now on."

"Aren't you a bit afraid of being sniped one day when you're on the way to La Fenice or to the airport?" Rei asks, unnerved by his nonchalance.

"From time to time, especially now that life is so good," he admits, almost a little amused at himself, before his eyes fix an invisible spot in the distance and darken. "But they wouldn't achieve anything with that, would they?" And dying is actually not that horrifying compared to the thought that they could accidentally snipe Shiho while targeting him. Not even the assassins are what they once were now that they are all underpaid.

"I can give you a hand whenever you want. If you ever need someone to protect her or watch your back, just give me a call."

In response to her impulsive offer, he only shakes his head with a faint smile. He will accept any help he can get if the situation calls for it but he hopes that Shiho and he won't ever need her, he says, and she shouldn't do anything to give off the impression that she is more involved in the affair than she already is since neither of them wants her next main role to be that of a corpse.

Knowing that pressing him for accepting her assistance is futile if he doesn't want it, Rei doesn't even try. She is convinced that he will eventually let her help him when it comes to saving his precious girlfriend's neck because he is not the type to sacrifice himself and his loved ones out of misplaced pride. Apart from that, the situation seems calm enough for him to relax since he would have asked Yaten-kun and Taiki-san to come to Venice if it were sticky.

"Apropos corpse," Rei lightly remarks and could have bitten her tongue off for the clumsy transition. She has begun to doubt that moral judgement can be fixed absolutely after what happened tonight, she tentatively begins. A few years ago, she'd have been horrified, but now—

"I think everyone has the right to end their life whenever they don't want it anymore."

"Do you... really think it was suicide?" She calmly meets his gaze.

"What else should it have been?"

His eyes, of a very dark blue in the light of the outdoor wall lantern, are unreadable and distant, showing her clearly that she is trespassing. The wind has risen and the temperature has noticeably dropped since they left the boat. Taking a step towards the door and fishing her key out of her pocket while pulling her woolly hat down to her frozen ears, Rei tries to readjust her face and smile.

"Afraid of facing Minako-chan?" Seiya-kun gives her a sympathetic look, as it can't have escaped him that she doesn't want to let him go.

No, Rei says truthfully, as Mina-chan, who couldn't attend the "opera" tonight because she didn't want to pass her cold on to Rei, will be fast asleep by now. Nevertheless, Rei knows what Seiya-kun's gaze implies. Mina-chan will undoubtedly cry over Haruka-san's death even after Rei has told her about Haruka-san's betrayal. And listening to Mina-chan's ramblings would mean to be reminded of Haruka-san's unique style and elegance, her single-minded devotion to a greater cause, and her immense, almost irresistible natural charm.

"Thanks a lot for driving," Seiya-kun smiles with an air of finality. "You really need your rest now. Good night."

"Tomorrow, well, today... before the musical... Can I talk with you in private when you've got an odd moment? It's about_ the scene_."

"Why don't we talk about it now?" he asks with a thoughtful glance in Shiho-san's direction.

Although he is probably right and it's much more sensible to talk about their dreaded final scene now when they are more or less alone than later in the opera house when they could be overheard by the cast and the staff, the sight of Shiho-san watching the two them with sharp mistrustful eyes makes it hard for Rei to find the right words to address the matter.

She had the impression he really enjoyed the production at first, Rei takes the plunge. He himself told her that Mr. Gray is an outstandingly agreeable director... "But your acting is deteriorating because your enthusiasm is waning rapidly these days. I know you can be terrific if you want to. So why are you tuning out? This role is really important for me. And I don't know anyone who fakes the kiss during the performance. People are already laughing about us for faking it during the rehearsals, you know."

Naturally, he knows very well that she knows the reason, and Rei would be much more straightforward in her frustration if it weren't for her consideration for Shiho-san. Living with an actor like him must be hard for a woman like her who values physical exclusivity so much that it is impossible for her to reconcile her idea of a relationship with his job in which casual kissing is a must.

He is going to give his best during the performance, Seiya-kun assures her. As for the kiss in their last scene: He once thought that Shiho-san wouldn't mind but now he thinks the kiss really bothers her, as she has been alluding to it ever since the first rehearsals. For this reason, they will have to fake the kiss during the performance just like they have faked it in the rehearsals until now.

Rei can remember perfectly the first rehearsal after which Seiya-kun was searching frantically for Shiho-san who had simply gone off for a tea session with Haruka-san without telling him in advance. The couple had been quarreling for some time afterwards, as Rei learned from the portiere whose ex-girlfriend is stalking Seiya-kun. The kiss was completely faked and wouldn't have meant anything to him even if it had been real, he had tried to reassure Shiho-san over and over again while she had retorted that, with his ability to lose himself in a role, she didn't know what to believe.

It's only one peck and one long kiss during the whole performance, Rei protests. And stage kisses are absolutely essential, especially to a musical like _The Phantom of the Opera_. "I've agreed to fake it during every single rehearsal for her sake. But we can't fake it during the performance. It's not the type of musical or play in which you can fake it. This one kiss is the climax of the whole musical. The critics are going to rip us apart."

"Not if we fake it correctly," he insists, tilts his head slightly and raises his hands to both sides of his face, testing out several positions before he closes the distance between them. With professional interest, he gingerly cups her face, places his thumb next to her lips and leans in until she can feel his breath on her cheek. "We're already great at faking it although we need to make better use of your hair. It's hard to do without making it look awkward. But if we can pull it off, it will look real enough." He slowly pulls away, satisfied with himself for coaxing her into using the old trick which is going to get both of them justifiably flamed by the critics.

"Alright, I'll try," she sighs, trying to get the idea of grabbing him for a real kiss on stage where he can't resist out of her mind by giving Shiho-san, who has just shot Seiya-kun and her a dark look, a wicked smile. "But if I get an award for the most pathetic Christine who can't even kiss her Phantom because he'd rather make out with his secretary instead, you'll have to make it up to me by coaching me for a month."

"Deal," he cheerfully agrees before he winces under Shiho-san's sinister gaze. "Although on second thought, I think I'll have to talk it over with Shiho first..."

"Ah, forget it. I don't think you can sacrifice so much of your free time for a casual friend like me now that you've got strings on you."

Despite herself, her voice sounds nostalgic, almost sorrowful, mourning the time he was still in love with Usagi and all of her friends were still hanging out with Three Lights. Raising her eyes, Rei notices Seiya-kun is frowning at her silently, apparently lost for words. Having watched him for so long, Rei knows it would have been easier to ask him to climb the Campanile di San Marco without safety gear or to steal Gentile's gloves off his hands than to say something intelligent to salvage the situation. His usually sharp wit will always fail him whenever he is confronted with feelings he can't reciprocate, one of the reasons why he always has difficulty fighting off his female fans in contrast to Yaten-kun.

He has been extremely busy these days, he helplessly begins, which is why he is only dividing his time between work and Shiho, and—

"No need to apologize. Don't be such a twit and take everything so seriously." Rei inwardly curses her ridiculous compulsion to play the guilt card. "But if you can't kiss me even once on stage, I doubt you can ever get back into acting." He has outgrown his teen action roles in which he only needed to peck his film partners on their cheeks, she reminds him. At twenty-five, they're going to cast him in the role of the ardent lover and force him to do all the raunchy love scenes even in action movies.

"Which is why I refused to come back with Taiki and Yaten," he says, and Rei kicks herself for not being able to guess this obvious reason. Just like Shizuka-san, she has hoped that he would make his screen comeback eventually although he refused to revive Three Lights. As much as she hates herself for this, Rei is secretly convinced that Shiho-san is ruining Seiya-kun's career and that it would have been better for everyone if these two had never met. Even with her uncontrollable temper, Rei would undoubtedly have been the better girlfriend for Seiya-kun because she would never have tried to tie him down the way Shiho-san does. Unfortunately, Rei must lack something essential to attractiveness in his eyes, as he has never been even remotely attracted to her.

"Does Usagi know about you two?" she asks, realizing that Usagi might have known about Shiho-san and Seiya-kun all along.

"Of course I told Odango immediately after I met Shiho." He has already turned away from her as if he is about to leave, standing with one foot on the stairs and the other on the masegni.

And why didn't you tell us, Rei thinks, hurt by the inequality of his distribution of trust. But since time is running out and he has always been more "Odango's friend" than friends with the rest of the group, she decides to proceed to the next question.

"The remark about the 'opera' when you were imitating Haruka-san... It was a revenge against the perverted sleuth for groping your girlfriend, right?" It is best to take a detour to the topic of his switching act and to introduce it in a humorous tone, Rei decides, so that he won't get alarmed again and take flight before she can nail him down.

"Why perverted?" He blinks at her uncomprehendingly, looking suddenly ten years younger than his age with the puzzled expression which has just come over his face. He really didn't say it to taunt "Kudo", he forcefully asserts, (which throws Rei a bit because she can't tell why it should bother him whether he has hurt The Perverted Sleuth — abbreviated to "T.P.S." à la Haruka-san — or not). The whole act was actually a "goodbye present" for "the dear commissario," who (due to Seiya-kun's prank and Shiho-san and Seiya-kun's decision to hide their relationship from the police) had misunderstood the situation and believed that Kudo, Shiho and Seiya-kun were heading towards a precarious threesome. It was obvious that the commissario expected Seiya-kun to defend himself against the third party who was trying to hit on his girlfriend in front of his eyes. And since Seiya-kun was in a generous mood and parodying Haruka-san, he wanted to do it in a way which was in character for her, as the time when Haruka-san was still so hot-headed and violent that she would have punched a rival for flirting with her girlfriend was long gone.

In any case, Seiya-kun wasn't aware of doing anything wrong and had already congratulated himself for coming up with such a fitting quote and giving the commissario such a dramatic showdown until he saw "Kudo's" crestfallen face. And now Seiya-kun doesn't know whether he should be glad or distressed that his girlfriend is so clueless she hasn't even noticed it although he believes that she "still has feelings for Kudo."

"I don't think he is serious about her," Rei dismisses his worries with an impatient wave. Even though Rei doesn't think highly of men in general, she gives them enough credit to believe that no man would ever forget the woman he loves on a ship full of time bombs. "The perv only groped her to repay you for your prank. And then he put on his holier-than-thou face and accused you of not marrying her to put you down in front of the commissario." Nudging Seiya-kun's arm, she adds with a laugh: "Not everybody has the hots for your girlfriend. You're so possessive it's getting ridiculous. If you freak out because of a simple hug between old friends, you seriously need counseling."

Seiya-kun doesn't seem convinced by her arguments. Instead, he throws her a skeptical look telling her that it is not him but her who has a problem.

"But I don't really get why Haruka-san's remark about the opera is supposed to be insulting," Rei thinks aloud. "If she claimed that the character of a piece is more important than the form by giving her composition such a title, doesn't it mean that she actually supported you two?"

No, when he parodied her, he only imitated her body language and imagined what she would have done if she had been in his shoes. As for the real Haruka-san, she went overboard and made fun of Shiho and him tonight, showing that her "opera" would never make it into the category of an opera. It is just a concert — not even a "concert" in the classical sense but what's usually called "concert" in the vernacular, a few loosely connected songs with accompaniment. It could be categorized as a song cycle or a series of studies but not as an opera no matter how operatic the songs are.

"She said that, just like her opera is only a singing exercise, we two were only two kids practising for future relationships with other people who would match us more. She also tried to persuade Shiho to leave me whenever she could."

"But why would she do that?" Even though Rei knows Haruka-san liked to poke her nose into other people's private affairs for the best of reasons, this type of behaviour doesn't sound like her at all. "Don't tell me she really tried to steal her from you like the rumours say." Now that she thinks about it, it strikes Rei as peculiar that Haruka-san spent so much time with Shiho-san whenever she could, whisking her away from Michiru-san's academy after work whenever Seiya-kun was busy rehearsing.

"I wish I knew. She said I was the wrong one for Shiho and claimed I had stolen her from Kudo."

Shiho-san's soft spot for The Perverted Sleuth is an open secret, as Haruka-san, touched by Shiho-san's initial plans to sacrifice herself for T.P.S.'s sake and devastated by the speed at which Shiho-san succumbed to Seiya-kun's charms, often mentioned the topic to Mina-chan in passing. Rei has never understood why Shiho-san and Haruka-san admire the sleuth so much. Apart from the occasional tug of jealousy — a natural reaction to Seiya-kun and Shiho-san's incessant kissing whenever they think nobody would notice — Rei can't say she has ever harboured any sort of grudge against Seiya-kun's "secretary." But if Shiho-san is really silly enough to dumb Seiya-kun for her disgrace of a detective, there will be an army of other women eager to take her place and do their best to comfort her ex-boyfriend. And Rei is slightly taken aback by the unpleasant thought that it is much harder to keep a relationship than to start it, and that feelings are subject to change like the water in Venice during aqua alta.

x.

Shiho is freezing and he is tired, Seiya-kun interrupts Rei's train of thought with a yearning gaze in Shiho-san's direction, no longer trying to conceal his wish to go home and sink into the oblivion of sleep with his girlfriend in his arms. And since she doesn't look like a living human being either, resembling the Canterville Ghost more than Christine Daaé, he notes, she should mute her phone and go to bed as well.

"Just one last question, Seiya-kun..."

His gaze moves away from Shiho-san to travel leisurely along the Ponte Dei Tre Archi, the Bridge of Three Arches, in the distance before it rests on Rei's face with a genial but distracted look. Apparently, he is already far away, back in the boat where his girlfriend must be freezing although she didn't have to wait for longer than a few minutes.

"Does she know about all the things you've done for her?"

"What do you mean?"

He stares at her in wide-eyed innocence, showing no sign of recognition at all, and Rei momentarily falters before she assures herself that it must be an act because he was the only person who could have messed with the time like that.

It took her a while to grasp why he has been playing so many pranks tonight, she informs him in a low voice, taking care that her face is turned away from Shiho-san so that the latter won't be able to read her words from her lips if she tries to. What about coming clean now before the secret comes between Shiho-san and him and destroys everything they have, Rei proceeds with the smug conviction of doing the right thing despite shooting herself in the foot. They wouldn't be the first couple to drift apart because of a misunderstanding.

He is visibly startled at the realization that she has guessed the reason for his "pranks", and she can see in his guarded gaze that he is wondering for a moment whether to continue this charade or not before he gives in.

"Maybe I will tell her about it some day." While his tone is not doubtful, it is non-committal enough for Rei to give up trying to advise him. Instead, she decides to vent her frustration with a rant.

"I don't mind all the other things you've done. But the thing with my clock was totally redundant. It would have been perfect if you had simply left it as it was, you blundering fool!"

"A simple 'thank you' would have sufficed," he laughs and lopes off towards the boat, raising a hand to wave her goodbye. As always, he doesn't look back. And Shiho-san is the only one who turns to wish Rei good night as they leave.

Although Rei isn't deluded enough to believe it could have been more than a nice gesture towards an old friend and former ally, she is nonetheless moved by the undeniable truth that Seiya-kun has tried to protect her at the risk of endangering himself. Initially, the thought that only Seiya-kun could have put her clock back shocked Rei so much that she completely lost her composure in front of the commissario and the sleuth — and she even resented Seiya-kun a bit for using her as his alibi even though she couldn't remember him touching her clock while he was in her dressing room. It wasn't until Mamoru-san asked her on the way to the Gritty whether anyone suspected her that it dawned on Rei there was a detail she herself had overlooked: Due to her unfeigned astonishment, whatever suspicion the commissario and T.P.S. had of her prior to the interrogation must have dissipated. And despite the lack of a real alibi and the fact that the stairs from her dressing room conveniently lead directly to Haruka-san's, Rei is considered a harmless witness whose only fault is her loyalty to Seiya-kun.

Since Seiya-kun, who is anything but dumb, would have run upstairs to put her clock forward when everyone went on stage if he had only visited her to put it back and fake an alibi for himself, Rei deduced in surprise that her clock must have kept good time until everyone went on stage for the third act and Seiya-kun sprinted up the steps to her dressing room to divert suspicion from her. He must have done it as an afterthought before returning to his dressing room and informing Shiho-san about Haruka-san's death. The unregenerate Samaritan has once again pulled a stunt which will harm himself. Unless he changes his attitude and learns to give the word "security" a second thought, he will soon find himself in trouble.

Names, even speaking names like Rei and her friends have, usually don't say much about the characters of their holders. But sometimes the names coincidentally match the personality of their owners perfectly. Seiya-kun resembles his name, which is evocative of stars, of lights in the darkness and of eternal hope, an ambiguous gift from Pandora's jar.

x.

**A.N.:**

Maybe some readers have noticed that I've got rid of the letters before every chapter which spelled out ENCOUNTER because I don't want to force myself to write the same amount of chapters for one part. Part Two, for instance, has become much longer than expected while Part Three will be hopefully shorter. But the letter which one needs to solve the whole mystery will still be revealed in the last chapter of every part like in Chapter 11 (M).

In other news: I've edited this fic a little bit for tiny details (Seiya's fans usually call him "Seiya-sama" instead of "Seiya-san" and Shinichi usually addresses Sonoko by her first name and not by her last name). That's the obsessive editor in me who slows down my writing. I miss the time I still had a beta-reader because editing was less painful and much more fun. SN and Rae are too busy to do the thankless job. And I don't want to pester Dag because I want her to update "Like a Gun" fast.

saeg: Thanks a lot for the nice review. :) Here is the fast update.

Edit: I just read on the DC wiki that Hakuba's birthday is on August 29th and realized I had mistaken it as August 9th when I counted the days from his birthday to the present time. *edits the detail in Enc. Chapter 20.


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